London: That Crazy Swinging City
by dongaro
Summary: London: a place of youma, crime, and a sailor scout/martial artist fighting duo. Too bad the martial artist died. Or did he? 5 years later Minako gets pulled into the madness of Nerima. And she finds out, that sometimes, you should look for a body first.
1. Chapter 1

Minako's First Loss

London: That Crazy Swinging City

_Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Sailor moon or Ranma _

_Author's Notes: This is a story based off of Bob Lobster's story "Hell Hath No Fury". And the opening scenes were based on his story, with his permission. His story is a great one, and while not completed, is definitely worth reading._

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* * *

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It was sunny out, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky to block the morning sun streaming into Minako's room. Normally she would force herself to get up and slowly get ready for school, but not today. Never today. Minako pulled the covers back over her head.

"Minako it's time for school" Her ever present advisor Artemis tried to wake her up but all he got in return was a baleful eye glaring out from under the comforter. His cat body really wasn't the best form to force someone to wake up who was ten times his height. Luna would probably agree with him about that, especially considering she had an even lazier partner most days.

"Are there any Youma attacking?" The muffled voice came out muffled by the comforter. Artemis looked a bit worried. Normally Minako would play around a bit before finally letting herself be convinced out of bed.

"No." Artemis answered truthfully trying to place why Minako was in such a bad mood today.

"Is there a threat to the future, or to any of the scouts?"

"Err Pluto did say that everything seemed to be in order for the next little bit."

"Then I'm not going." Minako withdrew back into her comforter.

Artemis finally realized what day it was. "Right. Uhh I'll go tell the others you won't be at the meeting today." He knew from experience she wasn't going to be pleasant company today, or for the next few days either. He jumped lithely off of her bed and onto the windowsill

As he slipped his feline body through the slightly opened window Artemis paused. "He wouldn't want to see you like this. I wasn't your fault." He jumped quickly onto the nearby fence as the window was violently slammed behind him. Artemis shook his head. He sympathized with her though. It had been a greatly traumatic incident for one so young.

Really if Ranma wasn't already dead, Artemis would have killed Ranma himself.

…

"So Mina's sick and can't come today? And that's why she wasn't at school either?" Rei didn't seem to accept Artemis' carefully crafted lie.

"Right."

Rei remained unconvinced. "Are you sure she didn't see a cute boy and just ran off after him?" Admittedly Minako had done that a few times recently. Artemis only now realized why she had been so agitated the past few weeks.

"Rei, stop being so mean. If Mina's sick we have to go visit her. My mom always gives me soup when I'm sick, so we should make some." Usagi's sincerity and worry made Rei shrug. There was no point arguing with Usagi when she was like this.

Artemis tried feebly to halt the current train of thought. "She's feeling really ill right now. She won't want visitors." And this was probably the most truthful thing out of Artemis' mouth in the past half hour.

Usagi's eyes started to water. "But, but, we just want to make Mina feel better. What if she doesn't get better, or it's a youma bac… bact… bacteria. " Usagi had been studying for science class recently with Ami, and Ami had wondered why none of the youma ever chose illness as a method spreading. Ami needless to say regretted asking that question, or at least having asked it aloud to Usagi.

Makoto reached over and put a hand on Usagi's shoulder. "We can still drop by and bring some food with us. That'll help her feel better. Right? So don't worry about her, ok?

"Her uhh mom left some food with her before heading off to work." Mina lived with her family but they never really talked. Artemis doubted they'd even notice that their daughter skipped today's classes.

"You're acting awfully suspicious over there." Rei looked closely at Artemis who started backing away slowly.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Mina's just sick and doesn't want to pass on her flu."

It was Ami who finally spoke up and destroyed any chance of Artemis convincing the scouts. "I'll drop by after the meeting and check up on Minako. I've been helping out often enough at the hospital that I could most probably help treat her illness." The other scouts immediately agreed to this.

Luna on the other hand just kept staring at Artemis. She had been around him far too long to not know that he was currently lying his head off. Finally Artemis spoke up. "It's not an illness you can treat. It's the 4th anniversary of the Dark Company's defeat."

Makoto looked over at the white cat curiously "The Dark Company?"

"That's the name the Dark Kingdom used when she was still Sailor V and lived in London." Usagi chimed in holding up a few of Rei's Sailor V mangas. Usagi was an avid reader of Sailor V even after meeting the source of the story.

Rei quickly plucked her books back from the ever quick manga 'borrower'. "Stop stealing my books. They're mine."

"But you have so many of them." Rei just glared at Usagi. "Cheapskate." muttered Usagi beneath her breath.

Makoto, not dissuaded by the arguing duo, continued questioning Artemis. "Wouldn't she be happy about that?"

Ami shook her head. "Haven't you ever noticed that Minako doesn't mention her time as Sailor V often? In fact I cannot recall her talking very much about the Dark Kingdom's activities in London at all, other than that she stopped them." Ami directed a quizzical look at Artemis "Did something happen?"

Artemis bowed his head and spoke softly and with a heavy voice. "Yeah, I guess you could say 'something' happened." All of the inner senshi gathered around the white cat listening raptly to him.

"Well what happened?" Rei finally burst out when it became clear Artemis wasn't going to continue.

"You have to tell us so we can help Mina. We can't do anything unless we know what happened. We're her friends and we just want to help her." Usagi's mature side finally came through as it always did when matters of friendship came up.

Artemis looked thoughtful for a moment before he nodded. "Maybe it would be a good idea for Mina to talk to you guys about it. Well let's start off at the beginning. Do any of you remember the sidekick from the first season of Sailor V?"

Makoto and Ami shook their heads as neither had paid much attention to the series at all. Well other then what they had been forced to read, and watch, by their more interested friends.

"Yeah. It was Ryo wasn't it? He was always getting into trouble and Sailor V had to rescue him. He left for Japan at the end of the season because his parents moved away." Rei quickly recalled the minor character. Usagi nodded sagely in agreement.

"Yeah they never got his name right." Artemis grinned at that. "Probably annoyed him a lot, considering how much he thought of himself."

"What? You mean that Ryo actually existed?" Usagi burst out. Did this mean that some of the other characters were real too? She loved Mamoru dearly, but that one guy in the 5th season was pretty cute too.

"Yeah. His name was Ranma Saotome. And he was a lot better than the series made him out to be."

"Well he'd almost have to be, considering how often he got caught by the Dark Company and used as bait." Rei smiled in memory. The character had always been used as comic relief.

Artemis shook his head. "He was as good as Mina back then. He helped her out with a lot of the mobsters and crime groups. Even though he couldn't beat any of the Youma by himself he still helped Mina when she fought them."

"Was he from the moon kingdom as well?" Usagi wondered since this Ranma sounded kind of like Tuxedo Kamen.

"No, he wasn't. He was completely human."

"Then how did he help out Sailor V? Human's can't fight Youma." Luna finally entered the conversation.

"He was fast, and while he couldn't hurt the youma, he distracted them and lured them into position for Minako. He was a high level martial artist." Artemis left out that Ranma had been physically stronger than Minako even with her magical armor on. No need to make the scouts doubt him.

Makoto nodded. She had been forced into fighting a youma back in the day, once or twice, without her armor on. She hadn't been able to do much but she had been skilled enough to distract it and dodge its attacks.

"He died didn't he?" Ami spoke softly and the other scouts stared at her.

Artemis looked regretfully up at the sky for a moment before continuing. "Yeah he did. Mina was lured into a trap set by the Dark Company's Division Leader and Ranma showed up to rescue her. Mina was knocked out and when she came to the building was demolished. She never found Ranma's body. Just a lot of blood."

"He could still be alive couldn't he? Mamoru was abducted, but he was alright." Usagi tried to be positive about everything.

Artemis shook his head. "No. His father tracked us down and said that because of us his son was gone. And that he never wanted to see us again." Those words, along with the ones earlier in the evening, had badly hurt Minako for many years.

"Why didn't she ever tell us?" Rei asked.

Artemis's voice became even more somber. "Mina doesn't like to remember it. Normally she'll ignore today and fight whatever evil we're facing." His voice picked up for a second. "She's a good kid and didn't want to get in the way of saving people."

Ami looked pensive "She has shown a remarked preference for taking risks in past years around this time."

Artemis was once again amazed by Ami's perfect recall of past event. "Yeah. So just give her a bit of time. She'll get over it in a few days and be right as rain."

Usagi shook her head. "No. We can't just leave her like this. We're her friends, and she needs us right now."

"She just wants to be alone. She's thrown me out the window on previous years." And despite rumors, it was possible for a cat to not land on its feet.

"You're wrong. She might want to be alone. But she'll just be stewing in her pain, it's not right." Usagi spoke passionately and the other scouts were slowly convinced. Sometimes comfort was what was needed.

They ignored Artemis' protests as they left the shrine and began their trek to Minako's house. Luna looked over at Artemis. "You aren't coming?"

"Are you kidding? Mina's going to want to kill me for telling everyone."

"She'll thank you later."

"Yeah, later being the key word."

Luna finally turned to follow her fleeing charge. But before she could sprint after her disappearing charge, Artemis sheepishly called out "Luna, ehehe do you mind if I sleep at your place tonight?"

Luna didn't even dignify that with a response as she took off after Usagi.

Well there was always that one nice old lady who liked to give Artemis treats every once in a while. He'd stay at her place for a while.

Artemis knew he probably shouldn't head back to Minako's place any time soon. He wanted to keep all of his eight remaining lives. He figured surviving the moon kingdom's destruction only used up one. Seeing Minako right now might cost him seven.

…

The inner senshi gathered around the door to Minako's house. Finally Usagi, oblivious to the apprehension felt by the others, rang the door bell. And when it went unanswered, she continued ringing it again, and again.

"Meatball head, if you keep ringing it you'll just put Mina in to worse mood. Didn't your parents ever teach you manners?" Rei criticized Usagi's enthusiastic doorbell ringing skills.

"Wahhh! Rei stop being so mean." Before the two could start arguing again, the door finally opened revealing a pajama clad Minako. She looked mildly annoyed, but quickly smiled and tried to appear cheerful.

"Hey guys. Sorry about bailing today, I just really felt under the weather."

Usagi leapt forward and hugged the senshi of Venus close. "Mina you know we're always here for you right? We want to help. Ok?" Usagi's eyes were watering as though she'd cry if Minako lied.

Minako sighed and patted Usagi's head. "So I guess Artemis told you huh? Me and him are going to have a few words when he gets home." Minako clearly didn't look happy about it.

The scouts looked as though they wanted to defend Artemis but decided against it. They wanted to find out more first. Minako gestured to the scouts and lead them into her room up stairs.

"So what did he tell you exactly?" Mina was completely unlike her normal cheery self. Her voice was sullen and tired.

"That you had a friend named Ranma who fought beside you in London." Makoto said quietly, not wanting to remind Minako of her loss.

Mina finally cracked a slightly smile. "Yeah I fought beside him, behind him, and against him pretty much daily sometimes."

"You fought against him?"

"I'll tell you how I first met him."

* * *

…

_5 Years Previously_

Ranma was glaring at his pops which was a pretty much normal occurrence these days. His pops had once again pawned him off, this time to a small monastery on the outskirts of London. Ok, Ranma knew that meditation and 'being one with the earth' was important for a martial artist, but it was still boring.

But his pops kept on insisting that mastering the more advanced chi techniques required absolute control and concentration. Ranma just shook his head at that argument. He had been manipulating his inner chi since he was 8 to strengthen his body. This was just another excuse to put Ranma somewhere safe while Genma had the chance to 'acquire' some more 'traveling martial artist funds'.

To supplement his boring day classes at the monastery, involving meditation and learning human anatomy, Ranma had taken to following his pops around after dark. Mainly just to keep his pops from doing something too idiotic.

Ranma wasn't entirely convinced that his father wouldn't have gone through with that fiancée thing a year back if Ranma hadn't found out about it. He was only 13 for crying out loud. He didn't want to even think about marriage. But he was pretty sure his pops had only tried to engage him that one time. Hopefully.

But morbid thoughts of marriage aside, things were starting to look interesting below. His pops was dodging around a young girl in short skirt. The girl's movements, to put it bluntly, sucked. His pops wasn't even taking it seriously. Finally, getting bored, his pops jumped onto a nearby building before being shot from behind by a golden beam.

His father had decided in all of his 'vast' wisdom that stealing from a church would be a good idea. Ranma found it mildly disturbing that his pops had no qualms about palming his son off to one monastery only to go and rob a nearby church in the same city.

Watching his pops fall off the building and onto the ground, Ranma had to smile. It was kind of like divine punishment and funny to watch.

Finally Ranma stood up balancing easily on the window ledge and stretched lightly. "Yeah I know my pops shouldn't have stolen, but I can't let him get arrested." Ranma muttered to himself. Jumping off the window ledge and onto the street, he yelled out "Leave pops alone!"

…

Minako was having a bad day. Not only had she nearly flunked her test and gotten reamed out by her parents, but now she was fighting the most infuriating thief around. No matter how hard she tried, he just kept on dodging her attacks. The old man looked far too fat move the way he did, but he kept on dodging.

Finally, looking completely bored he said. "Go home girl and learn to cook. Fighting crime is no place for a woman." His thick accent didn't hide his clear disdain of her. Minako felt furious and quickly defended the honor of women everywhere, by using her V Crescent beam on the back of the now retreating man. Unfortunately for the thief, he had jumped up to the window ledge to try and escape the church. As such, when the beam hit him, he went sailing through the open window, and landed noisily in the street.

Minako grinned. Using the V crescent might have been a bit of over kill, but the guy definitely deserved it. She ran out of the church through a nearby door and quickly found the downed thief. His body was still twitching slightly. Clearly the attack and fall hadn't been pleasant for him.

"Serves you right for stealing from a place of hope." Minako began tying him up rather harshly when she heard someone yell from behind her. She quickly rolled out of the way as a young man landed where she had previously been.

"Yeah, I know my pops probably should go to jail but, he's my pops so no can do." The youth that appeared in front of her looked to be about her age and Asian. His accent was only a little better than the older thief's. But the young teen was kind of cute in a way.

The older man grunted something that sounded suspiciously like "Ungrateful son."

"What's that pop? You want me to throw you to safety?" The older man tried feebly to shake his head.

Minako looked confused at the banter, not sure what to do. But as the young man began helping her target get away, she decided that cute or not, he couldn't be allowed to beak the law. Throwing a light jab, she fully expected to grab the youth. Instead she was left wondering why she was laying flat on her back staring up at the sky.

"Aww man sorry 'bout that. Reflex and all. But yeah you should really go home and play with dolls or what ever it is girls do." The youth looked mildly embarrassed at having reacted without thinking.

But all Minako heard was the last line. "Dolls? Is that all you think girls can do?" These two were obviously related, no doubt about that now. And Minako planned on teaching this boy that girls were just as good as boys, if not better.

"Uhh yeah. That and cook… uhhh clean… not sure what else really." Had Minako known that Ranma had nearly no previous experience with girls, other than what his father had told him, perhaps she might have understood why he held such horrible chauvinistic views. As it was, she promptly tried to throttle him.

Which lead to her trying and failing miserable to hit him. The boy just kept looking bored. "So are you actually trying to hit me here? Just wondering." Needless to say Minako didn't appreciate having her skills ridiculed.

As they fought, the older man finally recovered enough to get to his feet. "Boy you're fighting like a girl. Ohh woe is me for having such a worthless student in the art." The boy just looked over his shoulder as he continued to dodge.

"Right pops, and that's why you were laying flat on you back a few minutes ago waiting to be carted off to visit the police again." The older man made no response as he jumped onto a nearby roof and made his escape.

Minako really didn't appreciate being ignored. "Crescent V" She shot her most powerful attack at the youth who side stepped it. The beam blew a hole in the wall of the building across the street.

"You know that was kind of half way impressive… if it actually hit, that is." The boy just continued grinning as Minako tried to kill… no beat the lad in front of her.

"Wow, you can actually kick. Well, I mean with those dumpy legs of yours, I wasn't expecting it."

The fight continued on, but as Minako became more and more furious, she came closer and closer to hitting the infuriating boy. Anger made her sloppy, but passion and magic are closely linked. As such she was slowly speeding up.

It was at this point that boy looked horrified at something over her shoulder. Using his distracted state to her advantage she finally managed to get a hit in. Ok so it wasn't her best hit, but she finally managed to get him straight in the chest. And Minako knew, from experience, that one good hit was more than enough to bring down a grown man with the magic armor she wore.

As it was Ranma winced heavily before taking off as fast as he could. "Get back here you thieves!" Minako tried to follow the fleeing lad but he was too fast. When he jumped onto an adjacent building she had to give up.

"So Mina how was tonight?" The voice of her companion Artemis came from behind her. Minako grimaced. "Ok not so good I'm guessing. But you'll do better next time right. So what happened?"

Sailor V told Artemis about the fight and the kind of loss that had resulted. Artemis didn't look like he believed her. But he never voiced his questions and the two decided to call it a night.

…

Ranma gingerly touched the spot where Mini-skirt had had hit him. Yep it still hurt like hell. How such a weak looking girl like her could land such a punch was beyond him. Well, she wouldn't have landed it if that demon hadn't appeared behind her and distracted him. In Ranma's opinion there were far too many fury little demons in this city for comfort.

Ranma decided to make a point of trying to track down the girl at some point latter on. Maybe they could play again, and she wasn't that bad. Sure she sucked at fighting but she wasn't completely hopeless at the art like his pops had always told him girls were.

* * *

…

"And that's how I first met Ranma." Minako looked mildly bemused at the memory.

Rei looked disgusted at how Ranma had acted. "He sounds like a complete prick."

Ami objected to the choice of words, but clearly mirrored Rei's sentiment. Makoto smiled scarily. "I wish I could show him a thing or two about girls and fighting." Makoto was probably one of the better members of the senshi in fighting. And to be honest, she could take most normal opponents even without transforming.

Minako just laughed it all away. "Yeah, he was a bit of an idiot when it came to things like girls. He once told me that I was the first girl he actually spent time with for longer then a few hours. And considering how his father raised him… well he could have turned out worse."

"He still sounds like a pig." Rei clearly didn't like the image she'd formed of Ranma in her mind.

"Yeah, he was, but eventually he got better. I think it was after the second youma that he stopped saying that sort of thing." Minako looked regretful at that point remembering the later youma attacks and Ranma's eventual death.

Rei looked as though she couldn't imagine someone that sexist turning over a new leaf, but decided to let it go. No need to insult the dead. Usagi finally asked the question they had all been dying to ask "What happened to him?"

Minako shuddered. "He died because I messed up. He died because I thought I could trust someone." Minako clammed up at this point and refused to elaborate.

Usagi just hugged her friend "I'm here for you. We all are 'k?"

Minako finally burst in to tears remembering that one horrible night that had culminated with Ranma's death. Danburite's words echoed hollowly in her mind _"Your love will be hopeless for all eternity. Now you can go on living without having to torment yourself over the ultimate choice of love or your duty. You will continue to fight for all eternity."_

Funny thing was, that as far as she could tell, that two faced demon had been right. If Ranma had lived, she might have been forced to make a choice at some point. Danburite had taken that choice once and for all, a final gift he had called it.

…

Meanwhile in Nerima, Ranma was lounging around in front of the TV with Kasumi. They were once again watching her sailor scout anime. To be precise, it was the Sailor V anime, not the Sailor Senshi one.

Ranma just lazed around draped over a pillow casually munching chips as they watched the first season finale. Ranma smiled as the credits started rolling. "Aww man I love that episode."

Kasumi normally didn't ask that many questions, as she liked having company and didn't want to scare Ranma off, but she was understandably curious. "Ranma, why is it that you only ever join me for the Sailor V episodes and not the Sailor Senshi?"

Ranma squirmed, not wanting to say what he truly felt, as there was an unspoken rule in the Tendo household, that you just didn't upset Kasumi. "Well the Senshi suck. I mean they're just knock offs of V-chan." Yep, no tact whatsoever.

Kasumi looked mildly upset at this, or as upset as someone like her could. Ranma jumped up waving his hands in defense. "They're not that bad. They're just copies, so they can't help but not be as good as the original."

Nabiki looked in through the open door. "You do know that Sailor Venus is Sailor V?"

"Sailor Venus? Which one's that?" Ranma quickly reviewed which scouts he remembered, Sailor Akane-look-alike, Sailor Tomboy-Red-Skirt, Sailor Tomboy-Yellow-Skirt, Sailor Preteen, Sailor Cries-a-lot. Finally, he figured out which sailor scout Nabiki was talking about. "You mean Sailor Kodachi right?"

Even Nabiki was slightly confused by this reference. "Sailor Kodachi?"

"Yeah, she has that whip of hers just like Kodachi, and she's always going on about love. And Kodachi always goes on and on about love too. Kind of makes you wonder if it's a mental illness, you know." Ranma had a very unusual view of the world. Probably due in part to how he was raised, who raised him, and where he was raised. Actually most of it had to do with Genma. But whatever damage wasn't caused by his pops, was probably due to his rivals and fiancées.

Nabiki just shook her head. To survive in Nerima, one had to know when to just let sleeping dogs lie. Convincing super powered martial artists little things about reality was just too much work, and far too risky. "So you knew Sailor Ven… Sailor V?" If nothing else this smelled of profit so she stuck around.

"Yeah V-chan and I were good friends. I taught her tons of stuff. Like how to take a fall, to keep your temper in a fight, and lots of other stuff. Akane isn't as good a learner." Nabiki took this to mean that Ranma had basically been fighting Sailor Venus and having a great time. She doubted Sailor Venus liked the 'teaching' any more than Akane had.

"So, other then fighting her, did you do anything else with her?" Depending on what he said next, Nabiki could sell the information either to other students, or the fiancée brigade. Actually, if she spun it right, maybe both.

"Well, I did help her out a few times, not that she really needed it." Which was saying a lot. Ranma rarely complemented anyone. "She wasn't as good as me, but those monster things were pretty tough."

Kasumi looked enchanted at this. "You fought youma with Sailor Venus?"

"Nawww. I fought those demon things with V-chan."

Kasumi immediately started asking more questions so Ranma finally broke down and told her about his first major adventure with V-chan. He couldn't very well ignore Kasumi. Nabiki stayed quiet and listened, already seeing the money about to flow in.

* * *

…

Ranma was once more searching through the city of London for Mini-Skirt again. She had actually managed to hit him, so he was inclined to track her down to have some more fun. It was either that, or track down his father, whom Ranma was pretty sure was going to go 'acquire' more funds tonight. What Ranma didn't see, he didn't have to morally object to.

It was at this point he saw some explosions and weird lights in the distance. Kind of similar in looks to the one that had sent his pops flying. Assuming there wasn't another person running around London with Mini-Skirt's abilities; it was pretty safe to say it was her over there. Grinning Ranma went off to track down his newest friend.

Reaching the docks, he saw a huge monstrous looking thing smashing the various warehouse walls. The monster looked like something out of a bad joke. It looked kind of like a cross between a plant and a bug. Only with none of the awesomeness that it sounded like. Sure it had wings, but it had weird branch like hands and weird flowers growing all over it. Really sickly rotten looking flowers, but flowers nonetheless.

The monster kept shooting those flowers off its body in Mini-Skirt's direction trying to hit her. But it had yet to succeed.

Mini-Skirt was currently hiding behind a large crate of boxes, only popping out to take sniping shots at the monster thing. Ranma just had to laugh. "Aw, man you suck. Can't you take down one little monster? I mean its aim is almost as bad as yours and that's saying a lot."

Mini-Skirt looked around for a moment before noticing Ranma's perch on top of one of the warehouse roofs. "Get out of here, you're in danger!" She yelled out.

"From the horror story reject? Aww man you've got to be kidding me. He stinks… and not just literally." Ok, so Ranma had never fought a demon before. But it couldn't be worse than that one time his pops had forced him to fight those bears. Or when his pops thought that the best way to learn how to swim was with sharks. Really there were far worse thing he could fight. And the bug plant didn't look that strong. Hell it looked really thin and weak.

The demon thing who had been content to try and hunt Sailor-V until this point started to get a little irritated at the stupid human. "Iiiiinslent wwworrrm. Youuu darrrrrre mock Belllzzzebug?"

"Yessssss Iiiiiii doooo." Ranma grinned mocking Belzebug's speech. "I mean I know I have a bad accent but come on, there are limits to how bad an accent can be. You're actually trying to mangle it right?"

Belzebug's eyes twitched. "Or are you really that stupid?" Belzebug's eye's twitched again. Ranma then laughed. "Actually you're really smart aren't you? I mean most bugs just know how to be a little ugly. You've taken it to a whole new level."

Belzebug's wings flared and began buzzing. "Diiiiiieee." The giant bug took to the air and flew straight at Ranma.

At which point Ranma realized something. The bug was actually a lot faster than it had looked. It came in fast and kept trying to grab him. Try being the key word. Its strikes were pretty predictable. Finally Ranma decided that since the thing was trying to kill him, it was fair to fight back. Also the thing looked pretty tough. It could probably take a few punches.

So Ranma, dodging around Belzebug's punch, leveled a punch of his own to the monster's gut.

"Gahhh." Ranma jerked back jumping away trying desperately to avoid the pain. When his fist had touched the bug's body it had ripped a lot of his chi from him. And it hurt.

"Foooolish Huuuumannnn. Youuuu cannot hurrrrt Belllzzzebug." The thing didn't even looked hurt by Ranma's punch. Now Ranma, despite being only 13, had seen grown men taken out by a punch like that. Clearly this thing was a lot more dangerous than it looked.

"Right. You're just sayin' that cause you don't want to lose." Ranma gave the thing a cocky grin. "I mean, you'll need this advantage. Otherwise it would be too easy. I've squashed mosquitoes faster than you." Ranma, when faced with the possibility of a tough fight, always let his mouth just go on auto. Because you never knew when you might uncover a sore spot, to make the fight easier.

The fight continued, but Ranma was slowly realizing that maybe, just maybe, he could lose. Sure he could dodge the bug's strikes. But he couldn't keep it up forever. And after having that chunk of chi pulled out of him, he was definitely feeling like he'd gone three rounds with his pops.

"Crescent V!" A bright beam appeared and slammed into the monster's side, knocking it off the building. "Get out of here. You're in danger, you idiot." It was Mini-Skirt. She had climbed the stairs to the roof of the warehouse.

"Riiiiight." Ranma just gave her a flippant grin. "I'm Ranma Saotome and I never lose." The bug reappeared and instead of running Ranma grabbed a steel pole and went back to fighting the monster. Sure he couldn't hit the thing with his hands, but the anything goes school was a school of adaptation.

Every time the bug tried to hit Ranma; he dodged around the strike and leveled the steel pole for a counter attack. Sadly, all Ranma seemed to be doing was irritating the ugly thing.

…

Minako grimaced. The irritating boy just kept getting in the way. She couldn't get a second clean hit off with the boy dancing around the demon like that. She was more likely to hit the boy than her target.

When he had first appeared, she had been convinced that he'd die. Now she was just surprised that he had lived as long as he had. It was almost like he wanted to piss off every person he met.

"Just get out of the way and leave. This isn't your fight." Minako let loose another Crescent V this one aimed at the floor creating a large hole near the fighters. If she couldn't aim for the bug she could at least try to distract it.

"Ha… I'll be finished here in a bit… I don't need your help." The infuriating boy was starting to slow down, despite his claims. Minako was actually kind of impressed he'd lasted this long already. It was at this point, the bug finally managed to clip the boy's body for the first time.

The hit was barely a graze, but from the boy's grunt it had obviously hurt a lot. The boy's movements became slower and the bug came close to a second strike but the boy slipped under the bug's strike in time. The boy's movements were becoming sloppier.

"You aren't even hurting him. Normal people can't fight demons. You're too weak for this." Minako bit out as she leapt into the fray, kicking straight into the bug's side. She didn't like the boy, but eventually he'd slip up and die. This wasn't his battle.

She struck quickly and with a vengeance, hoping to force the bug back into fighting her.

"Bzzz. Fooolish huuuuumaaaaan. I wooold have deallllt with youuuuu afterrr, diiiiis." The bug's attention was once again focused in her. But no matter how she dodged it she couldn't retreat far enough to get off a V Crescent to finish it off. There was a reason that Sailor V didn't fight hand to hand with demons. It wasn't that she didn't want to get close to them, well not entirely at least, it was that magic worked better then any physical hit ever could.

…

Ranma was currently being ignored by the giant bug, and was taking a moment to regain his breath before jumping back into the fray. He also glared at Mini-Skirt, he would have finished it off… eventually. Ok, so what if his strikes were ineffective, he would have done something.

But his body was really hurting at this point. Just being around that bug was kind of draining. And having to dodge those deadly strikes wasn't a walk in the park.

But Mini-Skirt wasn't faring any better than he had. She was barely dodging Belzebug's strikes and only making a few good hits of her own. It was at this point he noticed that the bug's injuries from that beam thingy hadn't healed. Maybe there was a reason Mini-Skirt had stayed in the background to fire off pot shots.

Ranma leapt back into the fray shoving Mini-Skirt out of the way of an incoming strike. "Oy! Mini-Skirt. I'll handle bugboy here, you hit him with that girly beam thing, 'k?" This said Ranma went back to using his pole to hit the bug.

"It's Sailor V. Not Mini-Skirt." An angry voice came form the direction he'd pushed Mini-Skirt.

"Huuuumannnn, whoooo doooo youuuu think youuu arrrre?" Clearly the bug thing was more than a little pissed at being continually challenged by a normal human.

"I'm Ranma Soatome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. And I've squished stronger bugs then you. Smarter too." Ranma declared as he continued his deadly dance with the demon. Had the bug been a smarter opponent, it would have fled, or tried to deal with Sailor V first. But like most low level youma it was a creature of instinct.

"Diiieee!" It really didn't like being insulted. In Belzebug's current state of mind, it wasn't too hard for Ranma to move the bug's back such that it was facing Mini-Skirt.

"Crescent V." A yellow beam of light blasted into the bugs back. Slowly the bug turned and tried to say something but crumpled into dust before it could do so.

Ranma looked down at the dust, his body leaning heavily on his pole. Every single muscle in his body was sore. And his chi levels were gutted. It had been, probably, one of the most difficult fights in Ranma's life so far. "Took you long enough."

Sailor V just glared at him again. She also looked more than a little tired from the fight. "It wouldn't have taken that long if you had just minded your own business."

"Or if you knew how to shoot straight." Ranma quipped.

"At least I actually killed the youma. You just danced around it."

"I was softening it up ok? I mean I'd have managed it eventually." Never one to give in Ranma tried to make his contribution to the fight larger.

Sailor V gave him a slight smirk. "Right."

Ranma glared back at her. Hearing sirens in the distance, he straightened up. "Well it was fun and all, but I've got to go. We'll have to settle this some other time. See ya later Mini-Skirt." This said, he took off across the roof tops away from the warehouse.

"It's Sailor V. Not Mini-Skirt." A loud angry yell and a bright beam chased after him into the night.

It had definitely been an interesting night for Ranma. First he saw an actual demon and actually was able to fight it. But the fight itself left a sour taste in his mouth. He was a martial artist, and yet he had been unable to fight that thing. Sure it hadn't been able to hit him, well other than that one glancing blow, but dodging didn't count as a win. Not in Ranma's books.

And that girl hadn't been half bad. Not nearly as good as himself, but not as bad as what his pops had always said about girls. Even if she was using some sort of magic, it took a lot of guts to fight a thing like that.

Never one to dwell on the past, Ranma made a resolution to train harder, and track down his new friend in the future. Maybe there would be more demons to fight in the future. At which point Ranma planned on being stronger and able to handle the next one by himself.

* * *

…

"And that's how the fight went."

Kasumi had stars in her eyes after listening to a first hand account of a battle with one of her favorite heroes.

"You mean you couldn't beat it?" Nabiki actually had a hard time believing that Ranma would ever admit to needing help in fighting anything.

Ranma looked a bit upset at that. "It's not that I couldn't beat it… it's just it was easier to double team it. There's nothing wrong with fighting a demon in pairs." Ranma looked adamant about that. "And besides, I sucked back then. I've way better now."

Nabiki looked a bit thoughtful at that. She hadn't known Ranma as a kid. But even comparing the youth who first arrived at the dojo, to the young man before her now, there was simply no comparison.

Kasumi glanced at the clock and sighed. "I have to go start supper now." She clearly wanted to talk more. She then gave Ranma a focused look that almost made what came next seem like an order. "Ranma you must tell me more about Sailor Venus."

Now Ranma knew a couple things about life, one being never ever get between an otaku and their fix. "Sure I'll tell you some more later. I was in London for a few months and we had fun pretty much every night. I mean between the demons, thieves, the mobs, and our sparring matches, there was never a dull moment."

Nabiki smiled, grateful for his accidental phrasing of that last bit. After leaving Ranma to train, and Kasumi to cook, Nabiki reached for the phone.

"Hello this is the Kuno residence."

"Hey Kodachi would you be interested in knowing about a girl who Ranma spent a couple of months with, and had 'fun' with every night?" And after this it was going to be Uuchans, and a few other select places. This story was going to be very profitable.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: Since I do not own Sailor Moon or Ranma, I claim nothing of the below story_

_Authors Note: I had originally planned on updating later than this, but after such a great reception I found myself writing a great deal. Thank you for the kind reviews. As always, I welcome people's opinions about the characters, the plot, the pairing, and my writing style in general._

_Once again this story was based on "Hell Hath no Fury" by Bob Lobster, with permission._

_

* * *

_

_...  
_

_London_

_5 years previous_

_2 weeks after the first meeting_

Minako was currently observing a warehouse through a pair of binoculars. Tonight's activities weren't related to the dark kingdom, but rather to organized crime. The mafia was receiving a shipment of illegal arms for distribution. Not something Minako wanted to encourage. She'd been shot at a few times by criminals who resisted arrest. And while the armor worked, the bullets still really hurt. Bullet proof was not the same as bruise proof.

So to preempt any attempts of being forced to play 'dodge the bullet' Minako had decided to wrap up this group tonight. Hopefully it would be a quick little mission, so that she could get some sleep before that test tomorrow.

"Hey V-Chan." There it was, that detested voice. Now there was no chance of being done early tonight. Minako didn't even bother turning around. There was no point. After their constant meetings she had learned that paying attention to him only made him more irritating.

"Hey V-chan watcha doing?" A hand started waving in front of her line of sight. There was simply no ignoring him when he was like this.

"Idiot. What do you want?" She turned and glared at him. She was still a little sore from the previous night's fight. "Your father try to break into a jewelry store again?"

It had been several weeks since Minako had been cursed with the misfortune of meeting Ranma. Since then she had fought three youma, and two gangs with Ranma. She had also tried to arrest him, and his thief of a father, five times. Last night had been the worst. Ranma's father, Genma, had broken into a jewelry store. Minako had tried to arrest him, only to find herself fighting Ranma again.

"Naw. I think he's visiting the winery or something." Ranma looked a bit repentant about that. But then he grinned. "But your form really sucked last night. I mean normally you put up a fight before giving up."

"You nearly caused the roof to collapse on me. I was a little preoccupied with that." Ranma had been smirking the entire time, the insufferable brat that he was.

"Aww, come on. It wasn't my fault your aim sucks." Ranma smirked. Minako fought the impulse to blast him right here. The criminals she was after would, probably, notice the commotion. Then again they might not. And she did really want to hit that arrogant brat.

The sad part was that Ranma wasn't even trying to be annoying. In a fight he pushed every button available. Right now he was being downright polite.

Finally Minako decided to poke Ranma's biggest button. "Says the ballerina who can't even fight youma. All you can do is dance around them. Maybe I should call you twinkle toes." Minako said coldly. She then turned back to watching the warehouse. She knew he hated the fact that he couldn't fight a youma by himself. He had tried previously, often prolonging the fight needlessly, but he had yet to succeed.

"Hey, at least I'm getting in there. And I hurt that last one..." Minako tuned out her blathering companion. He'd probably go on about it for the rest of the night. He really didn't like losing to anyone. She returned to observing the criminals through the warehouse window.

The weapon dealers were dividing up the shipment into smaller lots, and the few members wandered the edges of the lit were holding their guns tightly. Clearly they didn't want to get caught, nor have any witnesses. Well it was time for action. Minako jumped off her perch and onto the street below and slipped into the warehouse.

Behind her she heard a squawk of protest. Clearly her newest irritating pest was going to follow her in. The last few times, when they hadn't been fighting each other, they had teamed up to fight. And as loathe as Minako was to admit, they made a somewhat good team.

In the distance she heard a dull thud. It sounded like Ranma had taken his first prisoner. Minako just grimaced. As much as she hated that arrogant twit, he made a good sidekick. One of the guards wandered near her hiding place, so she reached out and grabbed him. She quickly dragged him into the darkness and knocked him out, before binding and gagging him. Minako wasn't going to be left behind in the prisoner count. If she beat Ranma at this, as well as in fighting youma, she'd have even more things to lord over him.

It was at this point one, of the drug dealers called out "Benny? Get your lazy arse over here." Minako looked over at the bound criminal. Ahh, well it seemed like she'd have to make her appearance a bit early.

Or not. Two of the angrier drug dealers went over towards where 'Benny' had last been seen, which happened to be away from Minako's hiding place. It seemed like Ranma must have gotten 'Benny'.

"If you want your dough you've gotta put in the work you lazy.." One of them spoke angrily. They rounded the corner and promptly gave a loud protest before going silent.

Minako sighed. Ranma was obviously in top form, and she had only taken one prisoner so far. Then again, he wasn't the one spotting bruises from a support beam falling on him. Time to up the ante. Minako ghosted around the aisles and picked off a few more criminals easily enough. But in the center of the building, where the weapons were, voices were getting louder. They knew someone, or someones, were picking them off.

Minako clambered up a pile of crates and made her way to an appropriate spot. This was, perhaps, one of her most favorite parts about being a superhero. "Those who deal in pain beware. I am the pretty soldier Sailor V. And in the Name of Love and Justice I will punish you." She posed after delivering her line in a provocative way; as she was want to do.

The criminals below paused. Many of them would normally have laughed at a teenage girl in such a short skirt trying to arrest them. They would have laughed even more at a cute little thing like Minako spouting those ridiculous words. But like anyone confronted by something so utterly ridiculous and out of place, they did a double take and froze. Only one person started laughing.

The laughter was easily recognized by Minako. That laughter had been taunting her for over a week now. "Stop laughing. It isn't funny!"

"Yes it is. I mean, are you going to say that every time you challenge someone? I thought it was just a one time thing. But you use it every single time." On the other side of the group stepped Ranma Saotome.

"Says the braggart who claims he never loses."

"It's not bragging, it's the truth." His ever flippant grin just served to irritate her further.

"Cough, Youma, Cough."

The leader of the criminals finally recovered his wits from the odd sights, and yelled. "Someone just shut these two love birds up." The others quickly came to their senses. Odd masked girls and shrimpy boys only served to distract them for a while after all.

Minako sprang into action as the first mobster leveled a gun in her direction. She jumped off the crate she was standing on, and plowed into the criminal below. "Sailor V kick!" She sprang into action attacking the next closest guy with a strike to the neck, before dodging behind a crate as someone opened fire on her.

"You call that a kick. I've seen arthritic old men kick better than that," came Ranma's voice. Peeking out from behind cover, she saw Ranma diving for a crate as another person opened fire on him as well. She grimaced as she saw the number of fallen bodies around him.

"At least I can take a bullet. You have to dodge them." Well they did bruise, and hurt like hell, but it was kind of true.

"That's just because of your cheap armor." Ranma's voice cut off suddenly as he was forced to retreat as some of the gun wielding mobsters tried to pin down his location with bullets.

"I'll have you know my armor is so expensive you'll never find another like it." Minako slipped behind one large stack of crates and grinned. Ranma's trick from the night before was kind of inspiring. And if Ranma happened to be caught in the ensuing chaos, well sacrifices must be made.

"Because it looks so horrible. I mean, are you actually trying to encourage old men to hit on you?" Minako let loose a powerful heave against the stack of crates causing them to tip over. Loud crashes could be heard from all over the warehouse as the stack of crates created a domino effect.

Minako winced. She hadn't expected it to be this bad. All around her broken and smashed crates, with their assorted contents spilled every where. The criminals could be heard groaning, and a few could be heard cursing in pain. Minako glanced around. Where was Ranma?

But before she could worry much, a cocky pigtailed form shoved his way out from underneath the debris. "Next time warn a guy before you do something like that." Dusting himself off, he started rounding up the arms dealers and roped them together. The few that had broken bones and other injuries from the falling crates, were tied loosely.

"Idiot." Minako glared at him. Her concern soon drifted towards the ones that had actually been injured by her actions. It hadn't occurred to her that tipping over that one pile could cause this much destruction.

"Yeah, you should only use what you know someone can handle. Most people can't survive having this much stuff dumped on them. They're not all macho girls like you." Ranma said somewhat seriously as he surveyed the damage. "You got lucky no one was killed… so because of that, today's a tie." His voice turned somewhat light as it became obvious that through luck, or shoddy materials, no one had been seriously injured by the falling crates.

"But I took more out, so it's my win!" For a second there, she had actually considered respecting the brat. Silly her, Minako should have realized that Ranma never cared about anything except winning.

"But that's only because you're so clumsy you had to bring down an entire warehouse to do it. I took mine out based on pure skill." Ranma refused to give in, even for a moment.

Then Ranma gave Minako a cocky grin, before he leapt up to the window which the duo had been spying through earlier. "Well how about tomorrow's winner wins this one too. 'K? Bye V-chan." That said, he took off leaving Minako alone with the now incapacitated criminals.

It was at this point, Minako realized that in a weird way, Ranma had just complimented her. 'You should only do what you know people can handle'. Did that mean he thought that causing her to bring down the roof was something she could handle? Their fights had also gotten a bit more interesting lately. Ranma no longer just dodged her attacks.

Minako shook her head. For all that she hated his guts; he wasn't that bad a person. He was an irritating, arrogant, and idiotic person, but not a completely evil person. Sure his pops was someone she'd send to jail without a moment's notice. But Ranma was starting to grow on her, kind of. Maybe he was more like a weed that you just can't get rid of and decided to ignore instead. Grinning, Minako took off for home to grab a few hours sleep before school.

* * *

...

_Present Day_

RING RING

Minako finally jerked into wakefulness. She glanced over at the clock and realized it was time for school. After turning off the alarm, she collapsed back into her bed. She considered briefly sleeping in a bit more, but decided against it. It had been too good a dream to not wake up. Because if she fell asleep, there was no way the next dream could be as good.

Maybe it had been a good thing to talk about Ranma last night. Normally around the anniversary of his death, her dreams were haunted with the memories of that night, or recriminations from a rotting Ranma. But, for the first time in a long while, she remembered the good times. Well, as good as they could be, considering the type of person Ranma was. Minako let out a slight chuckle.

Minako hummed a bit as she remembered her erstwhile partner. The fun times, the fights (both with villains, and each other), the arguments, and the friendship they held for each other. It was one of Minako's largest regrets that she had never told Ranma that he was one of her best friends. She had been too busy arguing and fighting with the brat to ever mention it.

It might not even be a stretch to say that she might have had a 'minor' crush on him, at least, towards the end of their time in London. But that was the past. One day she'd find someone else to love. Someday she'd be loved in turn by another. Maybe then she could forgive herself.

Minako gave herself a grin in the mirror. "I'll find a boyfriend as easy as pie. Or was that a slice of pie? Doesn't matter! Today's the day."

Maybe it was chance or luck, but one of the last things Ranma had ever told her was 'You really need to find a new boyfriend.' That he had been talking about Danburite at the time was immaterial. She would find someone to love one of these years.

* * *

….

"So then, Mamoru said that he can't wait to come home and see me again." Usagi was currently on cloud nine after having called Mamoru during lunch, and had been talking about it non-stop since. Minako just smiled at her friend's ability to say what she thought, whenever she wanted. Usagi really was suited to being a princess. It was impossible to stay unhappy around her.

"Something's going on at the front gate… it looks a like girl with... two clubs?" Makoto spoke up, looking curiously in the direction of the main gate.

Minako looked and found that Makoto was right. There was a growing crowd of students trying to get out. But the strange girl kept swinging the large bonburi around preventing people from leaving.

Usagi blinked a few times, making sure it wasn't another hallucination brought on by lack of food. School was so cruel, in her opinion, as it only had one lunch break. "Lets check it out." The four other scouts nodded, they too were curious as to what was happening in front of their school.

As they approached, the crowd of students became more and more loud. Many were objecting to being stuck at school, and a few brave souls were trying to push their way past the purple haired girl. But those few brave souls that tried were quickly knocked back. Clearly the girl wasn't letting any one escape that easily.

"Where Love-love girl? You bring husband stealer and you can go. Shampoo only want Love-love girl." The girl, Shampoo, clearly was only interested in one thing. She swung one of her bonburi out into the ground. A loud crack could be heard as the large bonburi shattered the concrete. The crowd just stared in shock. They also stopped shoving, none of them wanted to be the next target.

One of the bravest students burst out. "We don't know any Love-love girl. Some of us have cram school."

Shampoo sneered. "School for stupid people. But you make good point." Shampoo scrunched up her face as she tried to recall the name Nabiki had told her. "Ahhh. Sailor Venus steal husband. And Sailor scouts goes to Juban." Shampoo was clearly forcing herself to speak more correctly to get her point across. It had taken a great deal of money to buy that information from Nabiki, so Shampoo wanted to make sure she relayed it correctly.

The sailor scouts just blanched at this. Someone knew where they went to school? Rei looked slightly guilty. She transformed pretty close to the school, not wanting to go somewhere else before transforming. Ami looked troubled, as she had transformed once to make sure she got to class on time. Makoto, and Minako, just laughed it off as though they had something to hide. Usagi just looked worried. She didn't connect her frequent transformation in the school building to this new threat.

"Then how come we've never seen them?" another student got out. Most of the crowd were pretty sure they'd have noticed something like magical girls. Especially since none of the scouts bothered with masks.

"Yeah, if they went to school here we'd know about it." The crowd kept getting louder protested the detainment. Shampoo began to look more and more irritated at the constant heckling from the crowd.

"Stupid people quiet! Or Shampoo start swinging." To accent her point one of the bonburi slammed into part of the wall surrounding the school. Really, the poor wall didn't stand a chance. The portion of the wall nearest to Shampoo was now dust.

Once again the crowd backed away from the gate. In the distance a few enterprising souls could be seen making their way over the wall, not caring about breaking school rules. "You guys wait here. I'll be back in a moment." Minako spoke quietly before rushing back to the school. Minako wasn't sure what this was about, but if this weirdo wanted Venus, then this girl would get Venus.

"We'll come too." Usagi started, but Ami grabbed her arm.

"If all the Sailor Scouts appear, people might start to believe that we do attend here." Ami, always rational, quickly reigned in the other girls.

Rei looked a bit irritated but finally nodded.

It was at this point black petals began to drift into the courtyard of the school. "Mamoru?" Usagi looked around quickly. Clearly through Pavlovian conditioning, she had come to associate flower petals with Tuxedo Kamen's appearance.

"Ohohohoho. Vile slattern make yourself known. For daring to steal my beloved I shall… So the ill-mannered foreigner has come to mete out justice as well?" On the wall around the school stood a black leotard clad girl. Many of the guys just stared at her. Around her billowed black rose petals.

"Ayia, is crazy poison girl. This not your business. Husband not yours." Shampoo began to grow visibly agitated at the appearance of the second girl.

"But of course it is my business. He belongs to me first and foremost." The leotard clad girl noticed that many of the guys were openly staring at her and taking pictures of her glorious body. Had this been Nerima, no one would have dared for many reasons. One was that bothering Kadachi was just a stupid move. She was crazy, even by Nerima standards.

Kodachi just gave a slight smirk, as many of the boys nearest her began to topple over. Another reason that no one bothered her, was her exotic collection of poisons and powders. Shampoo just wrinkled her nose. "But stupid panda no engage you to husband. Shampoo check to make sure no others engaged." Kodachi just smirked, and made her way over to the Amazon.

"The love between us was fated to be. Unlike with you lowly peasants, the Kunos have no need of such lowly things like engagements or barbaric marriage rites." Which was true. At least three generations of Kunos had resorted to bribery to get around little things like engagements, fiancées, and legal ceremonies. The also got around little things like assault and poisoning laws.

Usagi at this point was more worried about her collapsed classmates than the bickering two girls. Ami and Usagi had rushed over to check on the fallen boys. Ami quickly did rapid field diagnosis. The boys didn't appear to be suffering from energy drain or from losing their heart crystals. They just looked asleep. "They appear to be suffering from a mild paralysis toxin. Possibly from an alkaloid plant?" If Ami had been dressed as Sailor Mercury, she would have used the mercury computer to do a more complete scan. But she was fairly confident in her diagnosis.

"Are they going to be alright?" Usagi for once wasn't teary, but rather looked both serious and concerned. A true leader in the making.

"They should be. Assuming they aren't exposed to a second dose." Ami looked back to the two girls and the crowd around them. Ami then noticed that Makoto and Rei had vanished as well.

It was at this point, Shampoo began to yell. "What you say?"

"Simply that one as wonderful as my darling, has no place in his heart for you. Or your backwards culture." Kodachi sneered.

"You no insult 3000 years of Amazon history."

"Ohohoho and you think you can challenge Kodachi the Black Rose?"

Shampoo gave Kodachi a feral look. "No know until try." The massive bomburi lashed out, and Kodachi took to the air. The leotard girl began to use a cloth whip to strike at the charging Amazon. But with the rabid cunning of a mad dog, Kodachi realized that, perhaps, she had stepped too far. Amazons had a great deal of pride in their heritage.

As such, Kodachi began to retreat and shortly their fight left the school grounds. The crowd rushed out of the gate trying to get away from the school. From beyond the wall creepy laughter and smashing stone could be heard. But the sounds quickly disappeared.

Usagi rushed around the corner not wanting to miss what was happening. But all she saw was a swathe of destruction, and black petals fluttering about the street, denoting the direction the two brawlers had taken off in.

It was at this point a loud voice came from the top of the school. "You wanted to see me about something?" Sailor Venus finally appeared. But she quickly realized that her challenger was gone. Had the party ended without her?

* * *

…

Happosai had been bored and mildly vexed. Neither were beneficial things for the rest of Nerima. Now he was just vexed. His horrible apprentice had neglected to tell Happosai about sleeping with one of the Senshi. 'Oh, what did poor old me ever do to deserve such an unkind apprentice,' were Happosai's current thoughts. "Ranma could have easily gotten one, or two, of those young things to come and visit an old tired man, such as myself" Happosai muttered as he looked off in the distance, with a tear gleaming in his eye.

Happosai had been aware of the existence of the Senshi for a while, having briefly known one in his younger days. Maybe it was time to look up Setsu-chan again? If Happosai had known Setsuna was going to be collecting such fine girls, he would have stayed around longer, and not run off.

Surely it was time to strike up that old friendship again? Why Setsu-chan would undoubtedly 'let' him fondle her again. And she had always been in possession of wonderful lovelies. Surely the other Senshi had similar tastes? And wasn't it a masters duty to check up on his apprentice's girlfriend?

Why he was going to be doing a good deed. With a lecherous grin on his face Happosai took off for the Juuban ward.

His sudden decision to leave the Nerima ward had nothing to do with the rumors of Taro's reappearance. Nothing whatsoever.

* * *

…

The outer Senshi were partaking in their weekly group shopping trip. Michiru would have been fine going by herself for groceries, but Haruka always joined her since there was an auto shop nearby. And Hotaru refused to be left out, and she dragged Setsuna along as well. So over time it had become a normal occurrence for the four of them to wander down to the shopping district, every Friday after school for various necessities. And ice cream. One must never forget the ice cream, lest Hotaru cry.

"And then Tamako said that Kotaro likes Sakura." Hotaru was relaying gossip from school about her friends.

Michiru and Haruka shared a look. They both remembered when rumors about love had been the most fascinating thing in the world. But they loved their daughter dearly, and thus listened carefully. "So then what happened?" Michiru asked, smiling at her daughter.

Setsuna had wandered off earlier promising to meet up for ice-cream at the end of the shopping trip. Michiru suspected the Setsuna had been more then a little tired of hearing the love affairs of young middle school children.

It was at this point screams of terror and outrage could be heard from down the street. The three senshi dashed down the street only to see a huge bull like monster with tentacles on its back. The three dashed down an alley and quickly transformed.

Haruka quickly identified the Youma's target. The demon was trying to hit an elderly man who was only barely avoiding the monstrous swipes. Acting quickly, Haruka dashed forward and grabbed the old man, dragging him out of harm's way. Once Haruka and the old man were out of the way, Neptune unleashed a Deep Submerge on the bull youma, blasting the demon into a wall. The civilians quickly cleared the area, leaving only the combatants, the demon, and the old man.

Haruka put down the tiny wrinkled old man. "You'll be fine now. Just leave this to us and get to safety." Haruka gave the man a comforting, in her opinion, look before turning back to the direction the youma had been sent.

"Oh but I couldn't possible do that." Haruka felt something leech like plaster itself to her behind. "Leave such a frail innocent flower to face that mad Taro? Why I'd never forgive myself." She looked and saw the one time harmless old man gripping quite firmly onto her behind. Something that she would only allow Michiru, or a very cute girl, to get away with.

"Let go you freak!" Never the most eloquent person Haruka tried to pry the old leach off her, but he scurried up her body and now clung onto her chest.

"But the horrible monster might get me." The old man's eyes teared up pathetically. "Surely you wouldn't want someone like me to die a horrible death?"

"Yes, I would!" Haruka ripped the foul little man off her and threw him away from her. That pervert had touched something that no man was ever supposed to have felt. It was at this point, Haruka realized that something felt odd. Decidedly odd. Glancing down she noticed that she was no longer wearing a sports bra.

The old man, sailing through the air now, held it in his grubby little paws. "Sweeto."

"Uranus World Shaking!" The orb of energy tore along the asphalt and towards the old man. But at this point the large bull youma made a reappearance. In its haste to grab the old man, it blundered into the large orb of energy, resulting in it being sent once again into another building.

The old man finally righted himself against the wall of a nearby building, and scampered away. Michiru and Hotaru had just stared in surprise and shock at the entire series of events. But at this point, the youma recovered itself, and seeing its prey no longer present, it turned to the three girls. Giving a mighty bellow of rage it charged at them.

Haruka, more than a little angry, had no time for the youma and tried to end it quickly with another World Shaking. Only to have the beast unfurl its wings and dodge it. It was at this point that it reached her. Neither combatants were in a good mood. The demon had lost the old man, Haruka had lost her dignity and her bra. They promptly began to slug it out, as there was no room for Haruka to launch another magic blast.

Fighting a grudge match with something that had four times as many appendages for grabbing, wasn't Haruka's brightest idea. One of the tentacles on the thing's back whipped out and grabbed her foot, and hefted her into the air. Fortunately, a Deep Submerge blasted into the creature's back, distracting it long enough for Haruka to kick the tentacle holding her and get her foot free.

Landing harshly on the ground, Haruka rolled away from the beast, and sprang to her feet a few meters from the youma.

The beast was looking a bit tired at this point, having suffered from three magical blasts in as many minutes. The three outer Senshi slowly spread out around the youma, in a triangle formation, surrounding the beast.

If the beast had been more human, Michiru might have thought its expression to be a sneer. The beast stomped the ground, then leaned over and tore up a large chunk of the shattered street. Haruka leveled another World Shaking as Neptune fired her own attack, only to have both miss as the beast took to the air carrying its load.

It then hurled its load at the youngest Senshi present, forcing Hotaru to cut the projectile in half with the silence glaive to avoid being hit. The youma then began ripping various chunks off the buildings nearby to use as projectiles. The three Senshi tried to fire off return volleys, but the thing simply dodged around them, and continued its barrage. It was times like this Hotaru wished she had Venus's chain. Fighting the thing was nearly impossible without using their more powerful attacks, which were not suited to city fighting.

Finally the beast became bored and flew off leaving three bruised, dirty and tired Senshi behind. The thing hadn't even bothered to try and finish them off. Why it had left, they had no idea.

…

"What in blazes happened here?" Pluto spoke loudly, as she surveyed the scene of destruction. The Senshi of time had finally appeared. But at this point it appeared to be too late. The entire bock was trashed. The buildings were broken. The street was shattered and pitted by the large building fragments. Over all, it looked like a tornado had touched down in this one street. Even back in the heyday of the scouts, this would have been considered excessive destruction.

Haruka just glared at the pristine Senshi of Time. "Damn Youma… started dropping rocks on us before… leaving." Haruka's breath was ragged from dodging, and firing off as many magical blasts as she had.

Pluto looked as thought she was going to admonish the scouts, but decided against it. Michiru finally rose from her spot. "There was this bull youma with wings attacking this old man. We saved him. But I somehow doubt he deserved it."

Hotaru blushed and nodded quickly. Pluto raised an eyebrow slightly, before saying "The Princess said that all lives are worth saving. And we aren't allowed to make exceptions even for those who might not appreciate our help."

"Appreciate it my ass! I think he appreciated it too much. Next time I'll show him my 'appreciation'." Haruka growled out. From the way Haruka was wringing her hands, Pluto suspected Haruka's 'appreciation' might be fatal.

Michiru nodded. "Even I believe that Usagi would forgive us this once, considering what that horrible man did."

Pluto just looked even more confused. To be fair, she had just gone to pick up a few supplies, only to hear explosions off in the distance. Arriving at the scene, she had found her adopted family looking beaten and bruised with no threat in sight. Pluto also had been surprised to hear her dearest comrades considering bodily harm to a civilian.

"That horrible gnome stole Haruka-papa's bra and touched her ummm… He looked so harmless but he touched her…" Hotaru elaborated as best she could. Clearly she didn't want to get into too much detail.

Oddly enough though, Pluto flinched at that description. "It couldn't be. He's dead. He has to be." That horrible troll was likely long dead. Pluto had made sure of that herself. "No one could have survived it. No one." Pluto's mad mutterings made the others look at her in askance. They'd never seen her like this, except when there were cockroaches involved.

"Setsu-chan, there you are. I've been looking all over for you. How could you leave an old friend like me to wander friendless in this cold world?" A horrible voice from Setsuna's deepest nightmare came from behind her.

Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn glared at the person behind Setsuna. Not wanting to turn, Setsuna finally said "Hello Happi, I see you're alive… and kicking."

"Oh more than kicking my dear." A cold hand felt her bottom. There was no doubt. The evil old leche was alive. Whirling around Setsuna swung the Time staff like a bat and slammed the old pervert into a wall.

"Why won't you just stay dead!" Setsuna's scream was even more uncharacteristic from her normal demeanor. Happosai's body was about to slam into the wall, when he grabbed onto a telephone pole and hung off it to stop his momentum.

"I wouldn't be able to see any pretties." Came the cackling reply. "And I heard there's more sailor scouts now. I think I need to make a collection of all their pretties. Can't have yours being lonely now can I?"

Setsuna's eyebrows went spastic. "YYYou SStill HHave them?" It was a mixture of both disgust and pure rage that caused Setsuna to stutter.

Happosai just nodded sagly. "Yes. They were so unusual. Back when cloth undergarments were more common you had wonderful lovelies, much like today's type. Why, they were the masterpiece of my collection. Well, at least until everyone started wearing ones like it." He talked as though he was a professor giving a lecture on the subject. Happosai then gave her a sickeningly sweet look. "How about it, one more time for old time's sake?" His hand flexed in front of him as though feeling something squishy.

"It never happened the first time." Even with Setsuna's long history of lovers, romances, and one time flings, she was able to say she had never been in a relationship with Happosai.

A loud bellow could be heard in the distance. Neptune glanced in the direction from which the bellow had originated. "Well it seems like Pantyhose hasn't given up yet. I'll be seeing you later you know. Can't have my apprentice dating one of you Senshi without meeting her first." Happosai took off over the roof tops snatching a few drying clothes, of a certain type, from open windows as he made his escape.

Neptune looked at Setsuna. "Who was he?"

"I don't care who he was. Where can I find him?" Haruka's anger was undiminished.

Setsuna just gave them a look that shut the both of them up. "Meeting now! Call the other senshi, it's an emergency." With Happosai back in the mix, and worse an apprentice, things were not looking good for the future. Sometimes it just didn't pay well to be a guardian of time.

* * *

…

Ranma was actually have a pretty good day so far. Most of the fiancée brigade hadn't been around since yesterday. No Shampoo bursting into the class room at lunch, and no resulting quick explanation to Akane. While Ranma hadn't been able to talk to his good friend Uuchan, there was no mallet for perceived flirting.

Akane had been pestering him to get an autograph from her favorite heroine. Which was actually a change. Ranma liked Akane, but he kind of objected to the mallet sometimes. Being bugged for the autograph of an old friend, Ranma could deal with.

So overall, things had been pretty quiet. Happosai hadn't been seen in a while, which Ranma took to mean that Happosai was terrorizing a different city.

Sure Mousse had been by earlier in the day spouting off something about Shampoo, but Ranma hadn't really been paying attention. Most of Ranma's classmates had been pestering him for stories about Sailor V, and Ranma had been able to correct the rampant misconception that Sailor V was Sailor Venus.

Overall, it was a perfectly good day. Which was why Ranma was currently more twitchy then a deer during hunting season. Something bad was going to happen, it had to. Ranma had the madness in his life almost calculated into a perfect formula. And with things being this peaceful, what ever was going to happen was going to be big.

Not that he wasn't happy with this thought. Life just wasn't fun without something happening. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to have a boring life. Maybe he should ask Daisuke or Hiroshi, as both of them were pretty normal. They lived pretty normal lives, well other than that they lived in Nerima. No one in Nerima could claim to live a boring life.

Whistling to himself, Ranma decided to enjoy the rest of this peaceful day. One never knew when the peace would end and another crazy rival would show up.


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Sailor moon or Ranma. As such this work is purely for amusement. _

_Author's notes: Here's chapter 3 a bit later then I would have liked. Once again this story is based off of Bob Lobster's "Hell Hath no Fury"._

_As always I enjoy feed back about my writing, the plot, and the characters and their interactions. _

* * *

…

The scouts were, like most days after school, gathered at the Hikawa Shrine. Unlike most days, all of the scouts were present. Normally the outers didn't attend most meetings, and Setsuna never came unless specifically asked to be present. Babysitting teenagers became tiring after a while, especially when one was a few millennia older than them.

When Setsuna had contacted the other scouts, she was mildly surprised that they mentioned some trouble on their end. Ordinarily Setsuna would have shrugged it off. Anything important to the timeline she would have seen; this included any new enemies of the normal variety, or from the future. Ordinarily. With Happosai alive, Setsuna was loathe to ignore any coincidence.

As Setsuna and the other outer senshi arrived, Setsuna noticed that the inners had surrounded Minako and were questioning her about some boy. But since Setsuna had called the meeting, she decided to call it to order. "There is a danger to the future that I was unable to sense previously." Not entirely true, but close enough. The world of Crystal Tokyo would be purgatory, or paradise, to the evil gnome. And as such Happosai would most likely either ruin it, or make living there unpleasant.

The scouts quieted immediately. "But you said that everything was going to be good for a few years." Usagi looked worriedly at Setsuna. After the last battle, and nearly losing her friends again, Setsuna couldn't really blame Usagi.

"The Time Gates were mistaken."

"How can the Time Gates be mistaken? I know they can be blocked, but you always know when that's happening, right?" Of course it would be Rei who would ask that. Since Rei was a priestess, she was used to visions, and through her holy fire she could see limited bits of the future as well.

Haruka and Michiru, having heard everything on the way over, were standing off to the side. From what Setsuna could tell, they were plotting revenge on Happosai. Pluto wished them luck. They would need it.

Pluto turned back to answering the question at hand. "There are some things that are simply too random and chaotic to be seen in the Gates. They're impossible to predict, so the Gate uses an algorithm to predict around them." Realizing that discussing quantum mechanics was hopeless with this crowd, Setsuna changed tactics. "Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect?"

Usagi, Makoto, and Minako just shook their heads. Setsuna sighed. This was going to take a while.

Ami answered Setsuna's question without missing a beat. "The butterfly effect is the theory that a small action in one location, such as a butterfly flapping its wings, can create massive changes in other locations, such as a tornado. Simply put small things can cause a large change. Another application of the theory is that certain systems are impossible to completely predict, due the complexity of the factors involved. However using certain assumptions it is still possible to predict large scale weather patterns, regardless of the complexity of the factors involved."

Usagi was nodding her head as though trying to remain awake. Minako had long since started to stare out of the doors. Only Makoto looked as thought she was paying attention. But judging by the way her brow was furrowed, she hadn't gotten it either.

Ami sighed. She had tired so hard over the years to learn how to explain things simply. It wasn't that the other scouts were stupid. They just had other areas of expertise than the sciences, and math… and school in general.

"Some things the Time Gate can't see." Setsuna finally said. Ami looked curious so Setsuna signaled her that she'd explain in more detail later.

"Oh! Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Usagi beamed having finally understood the problem. Setsuna winced slightly. Hopefully in a few decades Usagi would become the leader everyone knew she could be. Actually, even after Crystal Tokyo was created, Usagi would still have time to mature. Maybe there was a reason Chibiusa was born 900 years in the future.

Coughing slightly Setsuna continued. "Yes anyways, as I was saying, currently we are facing a grave threat. One which I had thought long since dead, over two centuries ago. Its name is Happosai." An ominous crack could be heard from Rei's favorite tea cup.

"Ahh. My sandal strap snapped," came Rei's grandfather's voice from outside.

The scouts blanched. "Is it a demon?" Makoto finally asked.

At this time Ami looked thoughtful, and mumbled under her breath "The name sounds vaguely familiar."

"That's not far off exactly." Pluto replied pensively in response to Makoto's question. "He is a human, but he's extremely demonic. He was terrorizing China when I first…encountered him." More like she had seen a poor 'child' being attacked by vicious woman. Pluto had stepped in only to find out that the 'child' was a man, and Happosai had quickly taken full advantage of her kindness.

Ami finally spoke up. "Oh, I remember where I heard the name Happosai. It was in one of my mother's history books. According to a few minor Chinese legends there was a lesser demon named Happosai. He challenged a wise moon spirit to a game and won, stealing the spirit's cloths. The demon was also known for theft, particularly of alcohol and women's clothing."

Setsuna looked startled. She had honestly thought she had eradicated those myths ages ago. "Be that as it may, they aren't that far off from the truth. Happosai wasn't a demon, but he was an evil man. He lived to cause the misery of others, and to harass women."

Rei leaned over and whispered quietly to Makoto. "I bet Setsuna-san was the wise spirit."

Makoto nodded her head. "Yeah. I wonder what happened?"

Setsuna blushed crimson. "Nothing happened!" It had been a particularly hard century trying to deal with Happosai. In many ways he was worse then a cockroach. And worse, he had found out about her fear of those things. Setsuna honestly liked to pretend that the entire 1800's just hadn't happened. At all.

Haruka finally stepped into the conversation, sparing Setsuna from being questioned about that horrible time. "Regardless of what he did in the past, he's a threat now. He survived being smashed into a wall, and was holding his own against a demon that was able to hold off the three of us." Hotaru nodded slightly.

Setsuna knew that if Hotaru had been less concerned with vaporizing the block, whatever demon they had fought would have lost. "And that demon seemed to be related in some fashion to Happosai. Perhaps a servant who decided to run amuck without permission?" Michiru asked, still concerned about the bull demon.

Setsuna shook her head. "The Anything Goes School practitioners tend to be loners and rely on their own skill."

Rei looked curious at this statement. "Anything Goes?" Minako flinched slightly at the mention of Anything Goes. Setsuna ignored it in favor of answering the question.

"It's the most horrifying school of martial arts in existence. It has no set techniques as a rule. It has no advanced patterns. Honestly, it has only a few advanced tricks."

"Then why is it so horrifying? It sound's pretty pathetic." Rei said.

"An Anything Goes practitioner builds their own style of it based on the core teachings of the school. The core teachings build a martial artist with a mindset able to adapt to any situation, able to take new styles and incorporate them into their own. A practitioner of the school will incorporate dozens of other styles into a version best suited to their body. They strive to win no matter the cost, using any and all underhanded methods to triumph." And Setsuna knew exactly how underhanded they could be in order to win.

Rei still remained unconvinced. "It still doesn't sound like anything special."

"Just trust me when I say there are few opponents I would be more loathe to face more in combat that Happosai. Worse, he claims to have apprentices again. One of his last apprentices was a man who nearly conquered China." Well until Setsuna had tracked down him. "And even an apprentice of the Anything Goes School remains… difficult to defeat."

"But if this Happosai is as old as you say he is, shouldn't he have passed on from old age? The average human life span is only 78 years in a developed country. In the 1800's, 50 would have been considered ancient." Ami pointed out.

Setsuna grimaced. "He was over a hundred when I first met him. There are certain techniques in the world that can prolong a person's life, beyond what would normally be expected. Some of the darkest magics in the world can accomplish this." Seeing the scouts' curious expressions, Setsuna quickly said, "Those routes involve blood sacrifices."

Rei looked visibly pale. As a shrine maiden, she had encountered minor dark magics in the past. Curses, enchantments, and other dark things were par for the course living in a temple. "So how do we beat something like that? How much magic does he know?"

Setsuna shook her head. "Next to nothing. As I was saying, some routes to long life can be attained through dark magic. Happosai is a martial artist, and the greatest martial artists can prolong their life for centuries. Of course when I say greatest, I mean purely based on skill." There was nothing great about Happosai.

Now both Haruka and Makoto perked up. "How skilled would you have to be to do something like that?" Makoto asked.

"Very. It's unlikely either of you could reach that level. The amount of effort and time that needs to be dedicated towards attaining mastery is immense. You'd have to train for decades, with no other distraction to attain even a fraction of the skills of the masters. Which is why most of the powerful schools of martial arts have died out. No one wants to spend their entire young life learning something like martial arts." Setsuna was both grateful and sad about this.

Setsuna had observed some of the greatest feats of normal humans over the ages. She'd seen a human split a waterfall with a single strike of the sword, she'd seen a man take on an army and hold out until the very end. But such feats were now impossible by today's standards. It was somewhat saddening. Though really in Crystal Tokyo there would be no need for something as vulgar as martial arts, regardless how powerful some of them were.

Minako spoke up. "So where is Happosai now? If he's human he has to be somewhere nearby."

Usagi nodded. "And if we can find him, we can stop him."

Setsuna fully agreed with Usagi's intentions. She personally hoped the young princess would cleanse Happosai when she encountered him, as cleansing Happosai would likely kill him instantly. Pluto wasn't bitter about what Happosai had done to her over the years, not at all. "Nerima. That's the one place in the world where the Time Gates become… glitchy." Time skips and repeated segments, were all signs of too many algorithms being used to predict the unpredictable.

"Nerima?" Usagi looked started. "But whenever we got an alert on youma or daemons there, when we arrived there was never anything there." Needless to say after the third false alarm, Usagi had just slept through alerts from that ward.

Makoto looked pensive. "I've heard that Nerima is a place full of strong martial artists. A bunch of really old schools are based there."

The conversation turned towards the investigation of Nerima. Setsuna mentioned a little bit more about Happosai, and the rest of the meeting passed uneventfully. It was decided that over the next few days they'd scout out the area. Only Ami noticed that Minako had only spoken up that one time, and fallen silent since.

…

It was night, but unlike most nights, Minako wasn't at home. She had just crossed into Nerima wearing her Sailor Scout uniform. She had left the others after the meeting and made her way here.

Anything Goes had been his school. He had been the heir of the Soatome branch of it, whatever that meant. And if that wasn't enough, Setsuna's description of the school had been pretty accurate. It seemed pretty obvious, to her, that some of what was happening was because of Ranma's death. Obviously Genma had told his master about Ranma's death, and blamed the scouts. Or more importantly, blamed Minako, Sailor Venus. Minako wasn't sure how the two weird girls from before factored in, but Minako knew the root of the problem was Ranma's death.

Some things had to be dealt with on her own. She loved her friends dearly, but this wasn't their fight. It was her fault that things happened the way they did. And she had to deal with the consequences of it.

…

From behind a nearby wall out popped four familiar heads. "It appears as though I was correct." Ami stated, as the inner senshi watched Sailor Venus make her way down the street.

"Why didn't Mina tell us?" Usagi's eyes were watering. "Doesn't she trust us?"

"Idiot. She's just worried about us. You remember last time she got involved in something like this? She wanted to take care of it by herself." Rei grumbled.

Slowly the four scouts followed their friend down the empty streets of Nerima. Suddenly a loud clang could be heard. In the ground in front of Minako was a gleaming… spatula?

…

Minako just grinned. She hadn't expected to be attacked as soon as she entered Nerima. From out of the darkness came blob. Snatching it out of the air. Minako recognized it as an okonomiyaki. The street lights illuminated the message on it. 'I challenge you to a duel for Ran-chan.'

"Come out. I want to talk." Minako had no intention of fighting right now. She wanted to talk, to apologize. Though the food challenge letter was a bit unusual, as was the spatula.

Out of the shadows came a young looking man with a large spatula on his back. Around his chest were smaller spatulas, similar to the one that had been thrown at Minako earlier.

"You know, I wasn't expecting you to show your face around here honey. A lot of people aren't happy with you right now." The young boy's husky voice sounded both angry and hurt.

"I know, but I wanted to apologize. I didn't mean for it to happen… I didn't want it to happen… but it did." Minako's voice cracked as she remembered that night 5 years ago. She hadn't wanted Ranma to die.

"So you did steal Ran-chan? I wasn't sure if Nabiki was telling the truth, but I guess she was." The boy mumbled to himself. "You stole my fiancée." The massive spatula was quickly unsaddled and brought into a fighting position.

Minako wasn't sure how a fiancée factored into everything, but it was pretty obvious that the guy was talking about Ranma. "I don't want to fight you. I just want to talk with Genma."

"Too late for that sugar. You should have thought about that before you stole Ran-chan from one Ukyo Kuonji." Minako only had a moment to dodge, as the massive weapon swiped through the air where she had been standing earlier.

"Kuonji special technique: Rubber yakisoba noodles." Ukyo yelled as he slammed a ball of noodles towards Minako.

Sailor Venus knocked it with ease, only to have the sticky substance trap her arm. "Can't we talk first?" Minako tired to reason with the distraught Ukyo. Clearly Ranma had been good friends with this boy, to evoke such loyalty five years after Ranma's death.

The chef just grimaced, and used the rope of noodles to pull Minako closer to an over head swipe with the battle spatula.

"Fire Soul." Using the foresight that most martial artists seemed to have, Ukyo leapt away from Minako. A large fire ball incinerated the ground where the chef had been previously standing.

"Those who target young girls should be ashamed of themselves. In the name of the moon we will punish you for attacking our friend." At the end of the street stood the four other inner senshi.

"Why are you guys here?" Minako cried out.

"We knew something was up when you left the meeting. We weren't about to let you get yourself hurt," Sailor Jupiter said brightly.

"And you're our friend," continued Sailor Moon.

"Yeah. And I've always had a thing about guys who hit girls," Rei smirked as she said this.

Ukyo appeared to have recovered himself. "You know, you almost had me convinced that you were going to play fair. Konatsu can you handle these four? I have some business with the thief."

"As you wish Mistress Ukyo," came a voice from the shadows. Out shot five kitchen knives towards the scouts at the end of the street. The scouts dodged the knives, barely, but not without a lot of tripping and yelling.

Taking advantage of this the chef jumped off the roof, and quickly forced Minako to dodge down a nearby ally to avoid being decapitated by the swinging spatula.

Before the inner senshi could try to follow their friend, out of the shadows came a young girl wearing the traditional garb of a kunoichi. "My master has requested I prevent you from interfering in this fight. I apologize for what I will be forced to do to you. But Ukyo-sama is the world to me." The kunoichi spoke softly.

"I hope that after this is over that you will be still willing to autograph my Sailor Moon graphic novels?" Konatsu looked hopefully up at the scouts. Seeing the scouts' shocked looks, she sighed "I suppose not."

…

In the alley Minako had the advantage. The swinging maniac couldn't take full advantage of the over sized cooking utensil. Using the Venus Love Me Chain Minako was able to block the few strikes that Ukyo made towards her.

"Is this the best you can do sugar? Ran-chan deserves better from you." But so far the chef seemed to be unimpressed.

"Can't we talk about this?" Minako asked the boy for the umpteenth time, as Minako blocked another jab from the over sized cooking utensil. Regardless of how good this Ukyo was, Minako couldn't make herself hurt him. Ukyo only wanted to revenge himself against the person who stole his friend's life. And Minako couldn't really find it in her heart to blame the young man. Not really.

Finally the ally led into a large street. If Minako allowed herself to be forced into that open area, it was going to be a massacre. Already Minako was starting to realize that this Ukyo was definitely as strong as some of the youma Minako had faced over the years. It was time to stand her ground. Minako slowly stopped her retreat.

Ukyo grinned as he jumped into the air and used the sides of the ally to get onto the roof top. "Okonomiyaki house special." Ukyo flung a large okonomiyaki into the alley, which Minako stared in bemusement at. At least until the thing exploded, which forced Minako to dive out of the alley, and into the street beyond.

Coughing, Minako looked around for her opponent. Catching a glint of steel, Minako dove to the right, as three razor sharp spatulas imbedded themselves into the road. Still wielding the Love Me Chain, Minako blocked another incoming strike from the deranged chef.

Minako called out to the young chef. "I know I took Ranma from you, that it was my fault… but I tried to convince him to leave long before it happened. What happened that night… I can't change it."

If anything, Minako's words seemed to cause the chef to speed up her attacks. The Love Me Chain began to crack and shatter under the barrage. "Are you saying it's Ran-chan's fault? You hussy. You must have forced him into 'it'. He wouldn't have done 'it' unless you tricked or forced him into it."

Minako dove to the side as Ukyo threw a bottle of cooking oil at her. "Do you think I could convince Ranma of something he didn't want to do? He never backed down, never listened to anyone even when it was for his own good." Minako blamed herself for his death, but in the face of such vehement anger, she found herself suddenly defending herself unintentionally.

One other fact was starting to become clear as the fight progressed, that without magic, Minako might be in a bit of trouble. Minako was starting to realize, that against an opponent like this, she might just die. However despite Minako's fears, her earlier words seemed to have bothered the Chef. "But why? Why Ran-chan? You could have had your pick of tons of other guys. He was mine!" Ukyo's strikes were becoming less precise.

"You think I chose him? Ha! He was the most egotistical guy I knew. He was crass, rude, never knew when to shut up… I didn't want anyone. But he was always there, helping, insulting, and over all being a nuisance… but he was my partner!" Minako realized something then, as she barely avoided another debilitating strike, Minako realized something that had eluded her for over five years. That she still cared about Ranma was something she had long known. But more importantly Minako realized that even though events may have started after meeting her, Ranma wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Even if he died, he wouldn't have left a friend in need.

Minako had avoided thinking about Ranma so long that she had forgotten the sort of person he had been. If someone blamed him for something, he would have laughed. If someone was in trouble, he would have helped. If anyone attacked someone he cared about, he would have come to their defense.

"You stole my fiancée!" It was at this moment Minako noticed something about the person fighting her.

"You're a girl?" Minako yelled, surprised. The fiancée thing finally fell into place. This girl was Ranma's fiancée. No wonder she was angry.

Ukyo clearly looked to be even more distraught by Minako's claims, and using Minako's surprise had managed to clip Venus' shoulder. The impact sent Minako spinning. A second slap with the spatula served to cause Minako to become intimately acquainted with the ground. At this point Minako realized something else, perhaps something of just as great importance as her revelation had been. As she looked up at the gleaming instrument of food, and possibly death, Minako knew that this was the end. Ukyo's spatula descended towards Minako's defenseless form.

Minako's thoughts were something of a mix comprised of, 'hopefully it's quick', a goodbye statement to her friends, and perhaps a greeting to her old partner.

Clang.

Something wet fell on Minako's cheek. A tear? The young girl above Minako was crying. The heavy metal spatula had impacted the ground only a few centimeters to the right of the young sailor scout's head. Ukyo slowly withdrew the battle spatula, and sheathed it over her shoulder. Wiping her eyes she finally said. "Well I guess someone had to win… didn't they? And I guess Ran-chan made his choice…"

Minako rose unsteadily to her feet. Coming that close to death wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world. "It's not about winning and losing." It was sometimes about survival.

Ukyo let loose a loud bark of laughter. "Yeah, I guess you're right there hun." Ukyo turned away. "I'm not saying I forgive you or anything… but sorry about everything. You're right; no one can convince Ran-chan of anything he doesn't want to do. Well not completely at least. Me and him are going to have words, next time we see each other though."

Minako nodded. "I have a lot of thing to say to him when I see him again too." Once she passed on, in the far future hopefully, Minako planned on tracking down that idiot and beating him into the ground for dieing so easily.

Ukyo and Minako walked in silence back through the alley. The scars of the battle were carved into the walls on either side.

Minako tried to talk to her one time opponent, but every time she started, the youth just ignored her. On the other side of the alley, where Minako had first encountered Ukyo, the street was a disaster. The cement was shattered and cracked. Melted bits of wall still glowed in the night from the heat of Mars' attacks. Blackened marks showed where Jupiter had unleashed some of her more potent lightning strikes.

Overall it looked like something out of war zone. The four inner senshi could be still seen throwing magical strikes at a dark blur. The inner senshi all looked injured to varying degrees. All were bleeding a bit, and looked a more than a bit dirty.

"Konatsu, let's call it a night," Ukyo called out to the black blur that was narrowly avoiding the magical blasts.

The dark blur quickly appeared before Minako and Ukyo, revealing itself to be the young girl Konatsu. Konatsu looked even worse for the wear than the scouts. Soot blackened her clothes, and she was bleeding a great deal from various wounds. "Mistress Ukyo, I'm sorry I wasn't able to do more." The kunoichi glanced at Minako. "Did you take care of everything?" Clearly the kunoichi had expected only one of the two to come back.

"Yeah sugar. I'm just a bit tired right now. Let's head back," Ukyo grinned reassuringly at Konatsu. "I'll even whip up some of my famous okonomiyaki."

"Truly Mistress Ukyo?" The kunoichi's eye's sparkled at this.

"Where do you think you're going?" A very irate and bruised Sailor Mars called down the street. The other inners portrayed a mix or relief at Minako's safety, and anger at the young kunoichi.

But both the chef and ninja ignored the other scouts. "Just giving you a heads up, I'm not the only one a bit angry with you. Ran-chan has… had a bunch of other fiancées. And they're pretty insane. Watch your back k'? I wouldn't want to have to explain to Ran-chan why you died." That said the young chef threw a small object at the ground which quickly covered the surrounding area with flour.

Once the flour cleared, neither foe was present. Nor was there any clue as to where they had run off to. Minako made her way back to the other scouts knowing that she was about to be lectured.

…

Ukyo fired up the grill and began working on making one of her best okonomiyaki for Konatsu.

"Mistress Ukyo?" Konatsu looked concerned. "What happened? I thought you were going to challenge her, and then force her into leaving Ranma?"

"Yeah, but I found out they did 'it'." Ukyo's voice was terse and cold. Clearly she didn't want to think about what had been said by the girl. Konatsu tried to busy himself with tidying the shop up, but Ukyo put her hand on him.

"Sugar you need some rest, right? It can wait till tomorrow." Konatsu looked a great deal better in the light of the shop. But judging by the light burns, it had still been a hard fight.

Ukyo sighed as she continued talking. "Ranma's never even kissed me, and they went ahead and did 'it'. I lost control a bit and went full out. She was an okay fighter; I could tell she's fought Ran-chan before. It's in her style of fighting," Ukyo focused on thinking about her opponent, rather than her own actions during the fight.

Ukyo poured some batter onto the grill watching as it sizzled. "But no matter what happened, she never said anything about wanting Ranma, or that she was better than me. Maybe that's the difference between a hero, and a girl like me. She loves Ranma and pointed out it was his choice." Ukyo knew in her heart, that for a short while during that fight, that she had tried to kill Venus. And that scared her a bit. Sure she loved Ran-chan, but even in her most outrageous plots she had never seriously injured anyone.

Well, other than a few attempts against Miss Hinako, and that one time with Nabiki as the Tendo fiancée. But both times Ukyo had been aiming to beat them, not kill them or seriously injure them. Maybe it was time to let things go a bit? Next time she might not turn her spatula to the side.

"So what were they like?" A little bit of interest snuck into Ukyo's voice. As much as she hated to admit it, she did kind of like the sailor scouts. They were idols for most girls in Tokyo.

Konatsu looked pensively into the distance, before smiling brightly. "They were very good Mistress Ukyo. I was able to hold them off, but I wouldn't have been able to win. Towards the end I was forced to dodge a great deal."

"Ahh." Well it was nice to know the rest of her idols were good enough to beat Konatsu, whom Ukyo knew was one of the better fighters in Nerima.

The okonomiyaki was finally ready, and Ukyo served it up to her faithful employee, friend, and partner.

…

Elsewhere, the scouts were back in their normal clothes and nursing a plethora of bruises and a few minor cuts. For all that the kunoichi had been using sharp projectiles and poisons, the scouts were relatively unharmed. A bit sore in both pride and body, but they'd recover given a bit of bed rest.

Minako had listened to her friends berate her for the past half hour, nodding at the appropriate points, and agreeing that she would never run off to face the 'bad guys' alone again. The last being an order issued by Princess Usagi.

"So why did you run off without us?" Makoto finally asked.

The defendant at this impromptu trial, Minako, was finally able to present her case. "Because I know why Happosai is here. He's here because of what happened to Ranma."

"Ranma? Ohh, Ranma." Usagi took a moment to realize who Minako was talking about. "What does Ranma have to do with Happosai? Setsuna said that Happosai is like a natural disaster, if he comes he comes, then you have to deal with him."

"Maybe, but Ranma was the heir of the Saotome branch of the Anything Goes Martial Arts style of fighting. And his father was also a master of the Anything Goes style." Both Makoto and Rei looked a bit interested at this, as they seemed to remember what Pluto had mentioned about the school earlier.

"You believe that Ranma's father contacted his master after the death of Ranma? And that Happosai came to deal with you because of this?" Ami drew a logical conclusion from Minako's words.

Usagi was quick to jump to the defense of her friend in light of this possible attack on Minako's actions. "But it wasn't your fault. I'm sure it wasn't. We just have to tell Happosai that it's not your fault, and he'll leave you alone."

"Some how I doubt that meatball head." Rei immediately brought reality into a collision course with Usagi's naivety. "Setsuna said that Happosai doesn't care about anything other than his own appetite. Sure this might have brought him here, but I don't think he'll leave just because Minako says it's not her fault."

"Rei! It's not Minako's fault. We would have had to deal with Happosai eventually; if he's as big a threat at Setsuna says he is." Usagi and Rei were starting to heat up, promising to derail any productive conversation, when Minako finally spoke up.

"You're right Usagi." Minako embraced her princess, to show how much she appreciated the vote of confidence. "It took me a long time to realize it but I did. Ranma wouldn't have been Ranma, if he didn't come to rescue me."

Makoto's eyes widened. "He rescued you? But I thought you said he couldn't fight youma?"

Usagi burst out, her eyes gleaming, "He sounds like Mamoru."

Minako shook her head, "He was nothing like Tuxedo Kamen, he was rude, obnoxious, and he never backed down from a chance to fight. But he was my friend."

Both Makoto and Usagi were immediately drawn in by the romantic potential of a knight in shining armor. Ami looked mildly interested as well. Rei just gave a terse nod, as she still had a poor image of Ranma from the first story about him.

"I've never talked about what happened those last few days to anyone other than Artemis." Actually she had thrown Artemis out a window last time he had brought it up. The time before that she had emptied her glass of water on him. The time before that…well maybe it was time to get it out in the open. "This is how the death of Ranma Saotome started to come about." And Minako began to slowly tell the story of her first love, and first heartbreak.


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer" I own nothing related to Codename Sailor V, Sailormoon, or Ranma ½. As such the story below is entirely for amusement._

_Author's note: __**The character Denburite (aka Adonis, aka Kaito Ace, aka Saijyo Ace) is from the Codename Sailor V comics (showed up ¾ through, and was like a precursor to Tuxedo Mask). Codename Sailor V was the precursor to the Sailor Moon comic by about a year I think. **_

_Once again this story is based on Bob Lobster's "Hell Hath no Fury". Chapter 3 and 4 were originally going to be one chapter, but were separated due to editing reasons. I honestly didn't expect my proofreader to give me back the rest of chapter 3 (now chapter 4) for a week._

_This chapter is a bit darker, but I've tried to include humor where it's possible. Maybe a darker sort of humor, or a humor based on misunderstanding, but humor nonetheless. As always I enjoy feed back about the characters, the plot, my writing style, and anything else about the story._

* * *

...

_Last Chapter_

_Juuban Hikawa Shrine_

_Minako smiled as she continued talking. "It took me a long time to realize it but I did. Ranma wouldn't have been Ranma, if he didn't come to rescue me."_

_Makoto's eyes widened. "He rescued you? But I thought you said he couldn't fight youma?"_

_Usagi burst out, her eyes gleaming, "He sounds like Mamoru."_

_Minako shook her head, "He was nothing like Tuxedo Kamen, he was rude, obnoxious, and he never backed down from a chance to fight. But he was my friend."_

_Both Makoto and Usagi were immediately drawn in by the romantic potential of a knight in shining armor. Ami looked mildly interested as well. Rei just gave a terse nod, as she still had a poor image of Ranma from the first story about him._

_"I've never talked about what happened those last few days to anyone other than Artemis." Actually she had thrown Artemis out a window last time he had brought it up. The time before that she had emptied her glass of water on him. The time before that…well maybe it was time to get it out in the open. "This is how the death of Ranma Saotome started to come about." And Minako began to slowly tell the story of her first love, and first heartbreak._

_

* * *

_

…

_Elsewhere at the same time _

_Nerima_

Ranma had been ambushed by many things during his life. Over the few relatively short years of his life, he'd been ambushed by monsters, demons, scantily clad martial artists of both genders, crazy teachers, and ghosts. But there was one person whom he had never expected to ambush him. So when it happened, he was entirely caught off guard until the trap closed.

"So Ranma, you promised to tell me more about Sailor V right?" Kasumi gave Ranma a look of pure innocence. Kasumi had lured him into the kitchen with promises of fresh cookies to try, and then proceeded to corner him for stories about his one time fighting partner.

In Ranma's humble opinion, he was by far the more interesting of the duo. Though V-chan was pretty good too, kind of.

Ranma munched on his cookie, and bait. Kasumi was definitely nicer to him than most of the others who ambushed him. She gave him food. Deciding that since he had promised yesterday that he would talk about it, he nodded. He owed Kasumi for a bunch of stuff, and this was the least he could do.

"Well what do you want to know?" Ranma asked blithely.

Kasumi just glowed with the enthusiasm she normally showed only towards housekeeping. As an otaku she had thousands of questions about one of her heroes. "What sort of person was she? How old was she? She couldn't have been more than a child at the time. Did you know her real name? And did she have boyfriend like in the series?"

Ranma started to wave his hands trying to slow down the barrage of questions. He had known that Kasumi was really into Sailor V and the other knock offs, but still this was a bit much. "Ok, ok, give me a moment 'k?"

Ranma paused trying to remember what he could. Kasumi just stared in a similar way to how Akane stared at Shampoo when Shampoo got too close to him. Nabiki had always teased Akane about being jealous or something shortly afterwards.

Kasumi's smile twitched slightly as he continued to think. For some reason it scared him slightly, as it somewhat reminded him of the possessed Kasumi's expression.

Hurrying up, Ranma chose to answer the question that jumped out the most. "Well I know V-chan had a boyfriend. His name was… oh right I think it was Adonis? Or was it Denburite? He also went by Kaito Ace and Saijyo Ace too. He went by a lot of names now that I think about it." Thinking about that guy irritated Ranma to no end. It was because of that idiot he hadn't been able to say good bye before leaving London. And then Sailor V had retired shortly after that. Ranma doubted he'd ever get the chance to meet his one time friend again.

Kasumi nodded and gestured for him to continue as she busied herself with cleaning up after supper. Sure Ranma could have slipped out, but he decided against it. Kasumi had asked after all.

* * *

…

_5 years previously_

_1 month after the first meeting_

Ranma was irritated. Ok, so what if he'd gotten better at fighting these stupid monster things, he still couldn't beat one. He suspected his pops had observed a few of the fights and that was why they were sticking around. Normally they would have left be now. But Ranma's pop was never one to miss out on a training opportunity, and demons made pretty good opponents. Well other than the whole energy draining thing. But Ranma knew he'd find a way around it eventually.

Right now he was sitting on the top of a building letting his legs dangle over the edge. His body was glistening with sweat from the fight earlier that night. But his current mood prevented him from enjoying the view of the glimmering fog that suffused the city's damp streets.

"Don't be sad, it's not your fault you can't fight them." A cheery voice came from behind him. Ranma continued to sulk, and replayed the fight in his mind for a crucial hint of how he could have done better.

"I mean we can't all kill demons. It's not your fault you aren't a hero, like Kaito Ace." Sailor V's voice was both love struck and snide at the same time. Which was pretty hard to pull off, but she managed it anyways.

However, Ranma's patience snapped. "I could take him easy. I mean all he does it throw those cards around. They have to be magic cards to kill a demon." And magic was cheating in Ranma's books. Well other than what V-chan used, because she was a fighter too.

"But he's so hot, and cute." Minako's eyes turned misty as she fantasized about her current obsession. Ranma was willing to put up with most of her crushes and fantasizing, but only because Ranma knew he was better than the others. It was either that or start retching whenever Minako went on one of her fantasy whirlwind day dreams.

Ranma reflected on the night activities. It had been a normal evening of fighting crime beside V-chan when things had started to go wrong. Firstly, the current demon had been taking control of humans to do its dirty work. Sure Ranma could take on dozens of unarmed, unskilled humans easily. It just got harder when there were over eighty of them, and he couldn't go all out without hurting them badly.

Both V-chan and Ranma had been making pretty good progress towards reaching the boss, when some idiot threw a card at the demon mastermind and killed it. Supposedly the masked idiot, the male masked idiot not V-chan, was some sort of TV hero. And now Mini-Skirt just wouldn't be quiet about it.

But Ranma was kind of interested in the guy. Why hadn't he shown up earlier when things had still been in doubt? Ranma and V-chan had turned the tide, and only then did this new guy appear. Something just didn't sit right with Ranma. Of course it could be that V-chan went all girly.

After listening to Mini-Skirt go on and on about Kaito Ace, Ranma finally shrugged. "Well I'm off then. See ya later Mini-Skirt." Taking off, Ranma grinned as an orange beam of light nearly clipped him as he made his way across the rooftops. She was definitely getting better with that thing.

…

Minako just grinned watching Ranma's expression. Normally after a fight he'd be jumping off the walls talking about how awesome he was, or arguing about how close he had been to beating the latest monster of the day.

Minako planned on talking to Artemis about this new hero that had made an appearance. Kaito Ace was just so handsome, and the above all else, he was a world famous idol; it was like destiny meeting him like this. And if he was a hero like her, well it would make her job that much easier. Maybe she could look into teaming up with Kaito Ace to put Ranma and his pops in jail once. Minako doubted any jail could hold either Ranma or his pops for long. But it would be nice to put them there for at least a night.

* * *

…

_3 weeks later_

Ranma was bored. Really bored. Now, every time he went out to have some fun with V-chan, Kaito Ace showed up. Either Kaito took care of everything before Ranma arrived, or ruined an enjoyable fight. The fights weren't even worth going to anymore. The guy didn't even bother with letting Ranma have any fun at all. Kaito just gave a disgusted look as though Ranma was garbage or something, whenever Kaito saw Ranma.

Then again, Ranma had been getting that look a lot recently. The monks as the monastery had finally noticed that their donation box had been pilfered, and that Ranma's pops had been the last one spotted near there.

Also the wanted posters about his pops had started to feature Ranma's picture, as an accomplice. Which really sucked.

It was nearly midnight and his father had tracked him down. They were now both looking down on the city below from the top of a large building. "Well my boy, it seems it is time to continue our journey in the ways of mastering the art."

Ranma grinned. "Meaning the cops are getting too close to catching you."

"Insolent boy, I'll have you know that in this city there is simply no challenge for one as accomplished in the art as myself." Genma puffed himself up.

"Cough V-chan Cough."

"That was a one time thing. And woe is me for having such a girly, no worse then girly student, who cannot even defeat a minor monster."

"I bet you couldn't beat them either. And I'm getting closer to it alright." Ranma grumbled to himself.

…

Genma's lips quirked into a slight smile. Truly it seems his gamble had paid off. Letting the boy stay in the city with the magical girl had proved beneficial. Why, Genma wouldn't be surprised if the boy was ready for the more advanced chi techniques before Ranma was twenty. Maybe even before he was out of high school.

Genma had observed each and every single one of his boy's fights with the demons, utilizing the secret techniques of the Umi Senken. Had his son been in mortal danger, Genma would have rushed in. Perhaps. Then again, it was every true martial artist's duty to challenge themselves to the limits, and to grow in the art.

This reminded Genma that he really did need to check on the Kumon dojo about those techniques he had given them a few years back. Surely by now the Kumon dojo would be respectable enough now to bring his son to them. Which would allow Genma to have a short break, err planning session before continuing on their journey. Maybe it would also serve to impress the boy sufficiently into dedicating himself even more to the Art.

"Regardless boy, it is time to continue our training together. I assume you have learned all you can from the monastery, correct?"

"If you mean how to breath in through the mouth and out through the nose, stay quiet, and avoid boredom by going through patterns in my mind, then yeah." Clearly the boy did not yet understand the importance of breathing and meditation in the Art. The Art wasn't just kicks, punches, and stealing… 'rescuing' food. It was the deep mysteries of the world. Hopefully his son would one day realize this, and become a powerful master in his own right. Then, once understanding every thing, his son would be able to provide for his ailing father's health in Genma's golden years. Why, Ranma's dojo would be the epitome of the martial art's world. Men would send their children from around the world to learn at the feet of one of the last true masters of the Arts. Genma had nothing but contempt for most people claiming to be martial artists these days. Most couldn't even survive having a boulder dropped on them, what sort of martial artist was that?

Let it never be said that Genma cared nothing for his son. He loved his son dearly. And everything he did was to help his son. It was in Ranma's own interests to become the greatest martial artist in the world. And if by helping his son, Genma helped himself a little bit, there was no harm.

…

Ranma shrugged as his pops lectured him about learning everything that came to him. Ranma knew the Anything Goes School was one of adaptation and change, but Ranma didn't see the point of breathing techniques that calmed the mind. Those weird mental exercises the Tibet monks had taught were useful. These British monks didn't seem nearly as interesting to Ranma.

"We'll be leaving tomorrow evening my boy. If you have anything left in this city to do, I suggest you take care of it before then." That said, his pops hopped off the building. Ranma snorted. Clearly his pops wanted to get a move on before the police caught up to him.

Well, it was time to track down V-chan for one last romp through the city. Ranma really hoped that Kaito Ace didn't show up. Then again, it might be nice for that idiot to show up. Especially since Ranma wasn't planning on staying in the city much longer.

A small, light sparring match with the TV hero might be just the sort of thing to mark the end of Ranma's stay in London.

…

Minako was currently on cloud nine. She had been asked out, for the first time in her young life. Someone had finally noticed how awesome she was, and beautiful, and graceful. Minako wondered briefly if she was becoming too much like Ranma, but quickly decided that she would never be as arrogant as Ranma was. That sort of arrogance took a dedicated effort.

Both of her friends at school had crowded around her desk, asking her why such a famous idol like Saijyo Ace, had asked her out. To which Minako had replied by quickly put together a story about meeting him a few nights back. Actually that was kind of true for once. Saijyo Ace was Kaito Ace, and not only that, he said he loved her as both Sailor V and Minako Aino.

While he had stolen the spot light from her and Ranma over the past few weeks, it wasn't that bad. Minako was actually enjoying the down time. For once, she could just relax and be a normal school girl. It was also fun to rib Ranma about a second person who could fight youma and actually win against them.

Thinking about Ranma caused Minako to dwell on the past few nights. Lately Ranma had stopped coming; Minako suspected it was because Kaito Ace kept showing Ranma up. But she was starting to miss him, a little bit.

Grinning, Minako planned on letting him know about her new boyfriend. Normally, Ranma just teased her unmercifully about her crushes, but Saijyo was just as good as Ranma at fighting youma. This time, Ranma would have nothing to complain about. And Minako would have her fairy tale romance with her white knight.

But right now, she had more important things to think about, such as the three youma that she had tracked down. They had been running an energy collection operation through a blood bank when Minako caught wind of them. Minako had lured them away from civilians and into a mostly abandoned factory district. But now came the hard part of beating three at once. Hopefully that idiot Ranma would show up soon. He'd been complaining about not being able to fight, and now he wasn't even here. Sometimes Minako wished Ranma had a communicator too. Just so she could get in contact with him.

…

When Ranma finally located V-chan, she was surrounded by three demon thing. They didn't look like much, but V-chan was having a few problems with them since they kept covering for each other, which prevented her from finishing any one of them off.

"Oy, V-chan! I know you suck without me, but come on, these guys shouldn't even be a challenge for you. Or are you purposely holding back to have some fun?"

"Idiot. We're not all battle crazy jocks like you," Minako yelled back, pushing her sweat soaked bangs out of her eyes.

The three blade wielding youma sneered up at Ranma. "This is no place for weakling humans. Leave or die." One of them cackled madly.

Ranma's brow twitched, he really didn't like being called a weakling after these past few weeks. "I'm Ranma Soatome, and I never lose." No way was he going to lose to a stupid demon, or three. Not this time. Ranma dived into the fray, only pausing long enough to untie his trusty steel pole from its strap.

The fight quickly fell into a pattern. Ranma held off one demon while Minako focused on the second demon. The third demon, when it jumped in to the brawl, became Ranma's new opponent, letting V-chan take his old dance partner. Leaving the first youma, that had been V-chan's original partner, to try and jump back into the fray again. Slowly, between Ranma and Sailor V's team work, the three youma appeared to be tiring, and their movements grew sloppy.

"So where's that other guy? The one with the dorky mask." Ranma asked as he dodged a particularly nasty swipe from the demon.

"Oh worried about losing? I promise I'll protect you." Sailor V teased. Sailor V had clearly learned too much about how to annoy someone. Ranma wasn't sure if he should be pleased or not about that.

"Riiight." Ranma said sarcastically, as he swiped out against his current dance partner. "I'm just worried that your boyfriend will show up and steal my fight again." Ranma laughed as he switched off with V-chan, to prevent one of the youma from attacking her.

"Are you jealous? He's actually killed a youma, unlike you." V-chan's cheery voice came from behind him.

"Who'd be jealous of some weakling like him?" Ranma yelled. He let loose a particularly vicious strike against the demon he was currently fighting. It was at this point he remembered the purpose of wanting to see V-chan tonight. "Oh V-chan, about tomorrow night…" Ranma's opponent sped up a bit, forcing Ranma to focus on not getting hit.

But on the positive side, Sailor V finally managed to strike one of the youma directly with her beam and finish it off. Two on two was much more to Ranma's liking. It was now only a matter of time before the arguing duo won the fight.

Sailor V finally said. "I won't be able to meet up tomorrow."

"Why's that? Don't tell me it's one of those girl things." Ranma joked as he put off telling V-chan about leaving. No need to mention it right away.

Minako glared at Ranma. "No! I have a date." She blasted her opponent to dust with a final shot of the V Crescent.

Ranma laughed at this to hide his twinge of irritation. It had to be that his opponents kept being beaten by a girl, not because he cared who V-chan dated. "You mean someone as…" Ranma had been about to say ugly, but Ranma's almost never used self preservation made a miraculous appearance. "…klutzy as you has a date? I mean you can't even fight." Every time previously that Minako had developed a crush on someone it ended badly. Most of them had been in love with someone else, or they moved. Sometimes Ranma honestly thought Minako was cursed in this regard. How else could someone like her, not that she was cute or anything, have such problems with dating?

"Not everyone is a fighter jock. Some boys are more interested by beauty and womanly grace." The final youma looked more then a little annoyed, that it and its brethren, had been dealt with so handily.

Ranma poked fun at Minako's description of herself. "Right. So why was he asking you out again? Cause there's no way you have any one of those traits."

"What was that? Are you saying I'm not womanly?"

"Ummm… maybe? Actually now that I think about it, definitely."

Venus began firing more indiscriminately. Ranma let out a squawk of outrage as a beam came far too close for comfort. The remaining youma hit the dirt as well. "Hey watch it. I know you suck at aiming, but you nearly got me. If I wasn't as awesome as I am it would have hit."

"Ahahah" Minako just gave an icy laugh. "Excuse me. I'm just an uncute girl who can't shoot straight."

"Uhhh. Normally." Duck. "You." Sidestep. "Aren't." Jump. "This." Swivel. "Bad." And finally Ranma got out of Minako's line of sight behind some cover.

"Besides, he asked me out so romantically. It was amazing." Sailor V's eyes began to sparkle in joy. Ranma just hopped out from behind cover once Sailor V stopped blasting in his direction, and reengaged the remaining youma.

"Romantically? So he like gave you some food, right?" Ranma just needed to figure out how to kill an energy sucking demon and he'd be satisfied. But similar to his fight against Belzebug, hitting the stupid demon with the metal pole didn't really seem to do much.

…

Minako had been reliving the wonderful moment when her current infatuation… 'destined' love had asked her out. Not only was Saijyo Ace handsome, he was also the secret identity of Kaito Ace. It was like a romance destined to be. But at the mention of food, Minako grimaced.

"Only you would think that's romantic. He gave me flowers." Minako finally returned to the present and saw Ranma fighting the last demon by himself. She considered briefly finishing it off, but she knew that if she did Ranma would probably just get annoyed. He refused to accept that normal humans couldn't fight demons. Then again, most normal humans wouldn't even be able to last as long as Ranma had. Sighing, Sailor V settled back to wait for Ranma to finally admit he needed her to finish it off.

"Wuss," was all Ranma had to say about Minako's boyfriend. Minako watched as Ranma continued dancing around his opponent. It was rather beautiful, in a deadly way.

"He blushed as he said it." Minako was slightly giddy at this recollection. It had been so cute.

"Major wuss. I mean, he sounds like a wimp." Ranma appeared to be trying something new with his pole.

"Ranma you idiot." A twinkle appeared in Sailor V's eyes. "Or are you jealous? I know that a young child like yourself is probably overwhelmed by such a womanly figure such as mine." Minako gestured to herself as she said this.

"No way. Why would I like such an uncute, klutzy, unskilled, can't even shoot straight girl like you. And who are you calling a kid. I'm the same age as you." Ranma appeared to be trying to stab the creature's joints. Too bad it failed. Minako thought it was a nice attempt at least.

"Girls mature faster than boys. It's a proven fact, so of course I'm more mature than you."

"Says the girl who cried after breaking a nail."

"It wasn't broken, it was nearly torn off. I'd like to see if you could stand having something nearly tear off your nail."

"I wouldn't have been clumsy enough to let it happen." Ranma's cocky grin just served to annoy Minako further. "By the way V-chan, who is this guy you're going to be dating?"

"Saijyo Ace." Minako grinned as she said it.

"Saijyo Ace….. Wait isn't that guy like some sort of super idol?"

The youma Ranma was fighting appeared to have long since given up hope of surviving. Every move was weak and sloppy. It growled out angrily, "Just die you stupid human."

Both Ranma and Minako ignored the demon. Ranma seemed to be barely paying it any attention as they fought. Minako nodded "Yeah, that's the one."

"Aww man, that guys an idiot. I mean doesn't he play Kaito Ace in that TV show? If the real Kaito Ace is such an idiot, then this guy has to be ten times worse."

"Saijyo Ace is Kaito Ace. And he asked me out right after school in front of everyone. It was so amazing."

"He knows who you are?" Minako almost thought she heard something akin to hurt in Ranma's voice. "Well I guess you must be getting sloppy, if a second rate guy like him can figure out who you are V-chan."

"What do you mean by that? He's a first rate guy, unlike you. He's handsome, kind, polite, sauvé, and above all he's a better fighter than you." Minako grinned cheekily as she said the last. Sure it was a cheep shot, but Ranma always aimed below the belt when insulting her too. She really was getting into these verbal sparring sessions.

Ranma snorted. "Aren't you just saying that 'cause you can't beat me? Sure you can beat these monsters easy enough I guess, but you have yet to beat me. It's like you're an idiot savant at it." Ranma just gave a somewhat forced looking grin. Then he smirked as he said something Minako thought he would never say again. "Then again, what else can you expect from a girl?" It was at this point that a look of shock appeared on his face, as though his brain had only now processed what he said.

Minako was shocked. Her face grew red, her shoulders shook with rage. "V Cresent Shower." Blazing shots of energy began to fall around the youma and Ranma.

Still glaring at the dodging martial artist, Minako took her leave. Hopefully that would teach that muscle-bound, annoying, jock what it meant to insult girls.

…

Ranma rose from the pitted ruin of the warehouse floor. A few of those beam things had hit him and they hurt like hell. Looking around for something to do, he saw the pile of dust that had once been a youma. "Damn it." Kicking the dust and scattering it did nothing for Ranma's mood. He hadn't meant to say it, but she had started it. He didn't care one bit who the klutzy irritating girl dated, or who she told her real name to, or that she thought him weaker then some idiot with cards.

No Ranma didn't care one bit. But he paused looking in the direction V-chan had taken off in. "Bye V-chan, it was fun." His voice was regretful as he paused for a long while. Maybe he shouldn't have said what he said, but he had wanted to say something to annoy her just as much as she had… annoyed him.

…

The next night Ranma waited anxiously at the meeting place for his pops. He had his pack of clothes and other necessities for their training journey. Ranma was not looking forward to swimming across the English Channel again. But it was much easier than crossing between China and Japan. Everything was relative Ranma supposed.

It was at this point Ranma felt a familiar aura of misery and despondency. An aura that drained energy from its surroundings. Maybe he would get his chance to see V-chan again after all. Not that he wanted to or anything.

Turning around, Ranma smirked as a large demon slowly made its way out of the shadows of a nearby doorway. Compared to some of the others he had fought in the past month, this one looked pretty weak. Then again he thought that about every demon so far, and had yet to beat one.

The demon, instead of attacking, began to speak in a soft sibilant voice. "My master Denburite wishes for me to deliver a message to you, human." The creature clearly looked unhappy at having to speak to a lowly human.

"Right. And why would I want a message form someone like him? I mean I don't usually talk to slimy monsters. I'm too busy beating them up, and stopping whatever dumb plot they're involved in." Ranma was pretty sure that running a fishing contest to harvest energy had to be the stupidest idea in the world. But that gambling one was pretty stupid too. Who would gamble away their energy for a chance at something as useless as money?

The monster's fanged mouth quirked into a grim parody of a smile. "Your partner has been captured by my master."

Ranma looked surprised for a second, before he just started laughing. "You almost had me there. I mean I know she's not as good as me, but there's no way any one, or any dozen, of you guys could take her down."

"Oh? Not even if I told you my master's human form possesses the name Saijyo Ace?" the creature looked even more pleased as it slowly revealed the message piece by piece.

Ranma's arrogant smirk dropped. It seemed impossible, but he couldn't take that chance.

The demon's inhuman mouth sneered at Ranma. "Oh I see I have your attention now. My master's instructions were to escort you to the location of the date." The inhuman mouth clearly didn't understand the significance of the word date.

But Ranma did. Minako was on a date tonight with her boyfriend. If the demons knew that, then maybe it wasn't so far fetched that Kaito Ace was really this Denburite guy.

Damn it. Ranma was still a bit irritated with V-chan, but she was his friend. Actually his only friend since Uuchan. Ranma threw his pack on the ground. "Fine. But if I find out you hurt her, I'll show you what a martial artist can do." Coming from anyone else of Ranma's age, it would have sounded funny. But the youma felt the raging energy behind the youth, and nodded slightly. Maybe in respect, or maybe simply to humor Ranma.

That said, Ranma let himself be led away from the meeting place. As much as Ranma normally hated to ask his pops for help, he hoped his father would get to the meeting place soon and come after them. Ranma knew damn well he was going into a trap. But if V-chan was in danger he couldn't very well ignore it.

…

Minako had been enjoying her date. The play had been enjoyable, the dinner delicious and Saijyo had been a gentleman. But it was missing something. She had fun but…

"Something the matter Minako?" Saijyo asked smoothly as he refilled her glass. Everything about tonight had been perfect. Everything Minako had ever imagined about her first date.

Minako just waved her hand. "It's nothing." Taking a large gulp of her now refilled wine glass, Minako let loose a large "Kampai."

"Cheers." Saijyo took his own glass and tapped it against hers. Looking deeply into her eyes, he leaned closer. "Are you thinking about that other boy? Ranma I think his name was."

Minako blushed bright red. "No way. Why would I be thinking about someone as irritating as him tonight? You're way cuter then him," Minako blushed slightly after saying this, "nicer then him, more polite then him…" Minako's voice slowly became thoughtful and trailed off.

Saijyo didn't' take offence at this in the least. "You love him don't you?"

"No way. He's just my side kick." But Minako couldn't get her mind off that infuriating boy. The constant verbal fighting, the rivalry, the knowledge that no matter what happened to her, that Ranma always had her back. That's what had been missing tonight. Sure she hadn't known Ranma long, but it was impossible to hate him after everything they had been through. Though, Minako wouldn't mind locking him up for a few years. Maybe jail would straighten him and his thief of a father out. Minako chuckled at the thought of Ranma looking sad behind bars.

"You're thinking about him right now aren't you?" Saijyo asked when Minako didn't continue speaking. Raising his own wine glass to his lips he took a sip, and sighed heavily. "I suppose that even in this life we're not meant to be together. A pity."

Now Minako looked confused. "This life?"

Saijyo nodded slightly as he swirled his drink in its glass. "Minako have you ever wondered about the past? About how past lives could effect the current world?"

Minako raised an eyebrow. She knew exactly how past lives effected the world. She was the reincarnated princess of Venus, and the demons she fought were servants of the Dark Kingdom. "Yeah. I've thought about it a lot some days." Minako wasn't sure why he was asking such an odd question now, especially after the last topic of their conversation.

"I would expect it of you, the Agent of Venus, our most precious and greatest warrior." Minako's head started to spin slightly. The conversation seemed slightly off. More than a little bit. She had been drinking juice right?

"Have you made any progress in finding the silver crystal or the Princess?" Saijyo's voice was as slick as ever and Minako found herself answering.

"Huh? What's that?" Minako put her hand onto the table to support herself. Was the world suddenly turning upside down or was it just her?

"I see. You haven't awakened entirely yet. A pity." He leaned closer to her his voice barely a whisper. "Hopefully one day you will know what I do here tonight is for your best interest. For I do love you princess of Venus, in my own way." Saijyo rose and then snapped his fingers.

A humanoid youma entered the room and bowed deeply. "Denburite-sama, as you have requested the message has been sent. Requal will arrive shortly with the boy. General Nepherite will be pleased with you. "

Saijyo nodded slightly. Minako just looked at her one time date in confusion. Why was he talking to a youma.

"Is everything prepared for our guest?"

"Everything is as you wish my lord." The youma bowed deeply.

Minako wanted to scream. The boy she had developed a crush on was in league with the dark kingdom. Minako managed to extract her henshin wand from her pocket and transformed. But the magic of the transformation made her previous illness worse. With no strength left in her legs she collapsed, only to be grabbed by Kaito Ace.

…

"Tch, I've seen better." Ranma said as he looked around at the large palatial entrance of the mansion he had been led to. It just went to show how rich Saijyo Ace was from his acting career.

The youma he had been following finally turned. "You are to go on alone from here. My master awaits you in the main ball room." The inhuman face turned into a perversion of human grin. "Why my master plays these games and does not kill you now, I do not know. But I look forward to eating what ever remains are left of your body when Lord Denburite is finished with you."

Ranma would have fought the monster right then and there, but he knew he probably couldn't take one of these things without Minako's help. He still might have tried under normal conditions, but not with Minako's life at stake. "Right, you just know you'd lose. Bad guys always send the disposable minions to deliver messages. No life expectancy."

The demon grimaced. And Ranma grinned before going deeper into the mansion. It was as unlike a final dungeon as possible. No puzzles to solve, no minions to fight through, it was just a straight hallway. Ranma kept feeling the draining presence of the demons, but whenever he looked he couldn't find them. Someone was playing with him, and Ranma couldn't do a thing about it.

Finally Ranma managed to reach a large looking door. It looked pretty impressive and heavy. Well if Ranma was a final boss sort of guy, he'd be behind the largest door in the building. If for no other reason then that it looked cool. Ranma just grinned to himself slightly as he braced himself and shoved open the two doors.

The room beyond the door was covered with Roman pictures dedicated to Venus, not that Ranma was aware of this. Some few pictures featured Adonis kneeling at the feet of Venus. At the far side of the room on a throne of gold sat Sailor V, her form bound to it. "V-chan!" Ranma called out to her as soon as he saw her. Judging by the way her eyes were glaring at him she wasn't happy that he was here.

From the shadow of the throne stepped Saijyo Ace. "It seems I was correct in judging your feelings about the Princess." Even now he appeared elegant and calm.

"Naaa, I'm not interested in any princess, just that uncute magic girl over there. So if you don't mind we'll be leaving." Normally Saijyo/Kaito Ace only exuded a bit of energy, no more than an average person, but right now Ranma could feel a literal mountain of energy behind the guy. And if Ranma was entirely honest, he didn't think he could win in a fight.

Ranma began walking nonchalantly forward as though he was completely at ease. If he rushed, he wasn't quite sure what might happen to V-chan. "Truly, I have no idea what you see in him, your Highness." Saijyo raised his hand. "That's far enough Ranma. I think it is time for a story."

"Aww man this is where you're going to tell us your master plan right? And then we'll escape and ruin it. I've always wanted to try this out." Ranma grinned as he said this, but he did stop where he was. He had to find an opening, and once he found it, he was going to grab V-chan and then get the hell out of here.

"No, not exactly, more of a history lesson. Did you know that once, long ago, on each one of the planets in the solar system there lived a long lived race of celestial beings?"

Ranma just blinked in bewilderment, this was not what he had expected. "Right, and this is why you should always make sure your boyfriend didn't escape from the house with the men in white. He just might think he's a Martian."

Saijyo didn't appear the least bit ruffled. "Venusian actually. In my past life I was but a lowly soldier in the army of Venus named Adonis, when I encountered a goddess in the flesh. The Princess of Venus, guardian of our world. But sadly she was already in love with another. And then came the war."

Ranma always suspected celebrities were a bit crazy. This just proved it. Aliens, princesses, and a war, it was pretty crazy. Which was why Ranma only paid a bit of attention to the story as he tried to figure a way out of this mess.

"You don't believe me do you?" asked Denburite.

"Nope. Not at all, but go on, I need a laugh," smirked Ranma.

"Regardless, a war came and shattered the empire of the moon. In a last ditch effort to stem the inevitable, the queen of the moon sealed the darkness away at the cost of her life. Those that died in that final battle were reincarnated again on earth, in this time period. As one of the soldiers of Venus, I too followed my princess into this time. But I was awakened by the fell power I had once fought against."

"Ok, so basically some queen beat some army a long time ago, and you're some sort of alien monster thing from Venus. Gotcha." Ranma nodded sagely.

Saijyo grimaced. "Are you going to continue to ignore everything I say to you?"

"Yep. Well unless you say me and V-chan can go, but somehow I'm guessing I'm going to have to fight you. But yeah, V-chan you really need to get a new boyfriend." This last part was addressed the V-chan. Judging by her scrunched up brow, Ranma was grateful she was gagged, as she would have been yelling at him.

"Very well, since I doubt you'd understand much of what I had planned to tell you, let us begin. Sailor V if you can defeat me I will reveal to you the location of the Dark Kingdom, the source of the Youma." A flash of light later, Saijyo became Kaito Ace, and V-chan's bindings disappeared. "Guards destroy the human, Sailor V has escaped."

Both Sailor V and Ranma looked confused at the challenge and the sudden change. Was this some sort of trap? But before they could question it, Kaito Ace took off out of the room.

Sailor V looked torn. "Let's go!" Ranma yelled out and began running. V-chan nodded before taking off after her one time boyfriend. Ranma followed her only up to the entrance of the passage way. Pulling the doors shut he blocked the entrance with a large statue.

Ranma turned around and faced the door he had come in from. He wasn't as good as his pops at sensing energy, but after the past months training at the monastery, he was better at it. From what he could tell, a veritable ton of demons were coming. Too many for V-chan and him to beat at least. Sure, she could have killed a few, but against a dozen, it would have been slaughter. At least she had a chance in a one on one with the boss

This many demons was just… Ranma smirked. Attitude was half the battle, and the monsters needed this sort of advantage just to be a challenge. "You know I've been working on a few techniques. This is just the perfect opportunity to test them out." A few of the demons were just starting to enter the room. "I'm Ranma Saotome and I never lose."

…

Minako was down right pissed. Not only had her first boyfriend been a monster, but Ranma had saved her. There was no way she could throw him in prison now. But smiling to herself she knew she'd probably give Ranma a kiss once this was all over.

But right now she had to catch Kaito… Denburite. The stairs he had fled up flew by as she followed the retreating sound of his footsteps. Surprisingly, Ranma hadn't caught up to her yet. Minako figured he was right behind her.

Reaching the top of the stairs a star lit sky greeted her. Across the roof stood Denburite. "Denburite for playing with a young Maiden's heart I will punish you!"

Denburite just nodded. "Of course my princess. I deserve no less for what I have done." Minako paused confused, as this was normally when the enemy tried to attack her. They never admitted that they deserved to be punished.

"As a guardian of Venus, our Princess must chose her duty over any personal feelings. I loved you, your highness, and perhaps in different circumstances you could have loved me." Minako doubted that. Not only had he kidnapped her, he had gotten Ranma involved in this. Though, he had helped her realize something about her feelings for Ranma.

"As my last gift to you I give you the gift of freedom. Your love will be hopeless for all eternity. Now you can go on living without having to torment yourself over the ultimate choice of love or your duty. You will continue to fight for all eternity."

"What are you talking about?" Minako yelled as she began to feel an ill foreboding in the back of her heart.

"Where is your companion?" Minako's eyes widened. "Exactly. He is below with the remaining youma under my command. I do not believe a human can stand against the dozens that remain here for long."

Minako spun around and rushed for the door she had come through, only to find it locked. Kicking it did nothing to the steel frame. Turning she glared at Denburite, feeling a hatred stronger than anything she had ever felt before. Minako could feel the magic flow through her. "Crescent V Smash." A beam tore outwork and slammed into Denburite. He didn't try to dodged it or even block it. He simply gave a sad, yet peaceful look as the blast tore through him.

"I've done what I needed to do your Highness." Grimacing in pain he smiled before turning to dust. In his own way he had loved her, though his love was an obsession that lasted from one life into the next. But, for a brief moment, he looked at peace.

At this moment, a loud yowl could be heard from below. The building began to collapse beneath her feet as a mighty force tore the place apart from within. Minako lost consciousness when a large beam struck her in the back of the head.

…

Ranma glared at the demons surrounding him. So far it was a giant game of c-c-c those things and mice. With Ranma as the mouse. This was not something Ranma enjoyed in the least.

"I think the human is tiring," hissed one of the snake like demons.

"Should we give it a break? We don't want it to break too fast." asked another one of the demons.

The ogre-like demon's punch whistled harmlessly by Ranma, as Ranma tripped the monstrous brute with his pole.

Ranma sneered. "Wow, you really are clumsy. And you know what they say, that the bigger they are, the harder they fall."

The ogre let loose a bellow as it forced itself onto its feet again. "Gratch kill human." It swung clumsily out at Ranma, allowing Ranma to cause it to hit one of the monsters encircling the fight.

"Tempting offer, but I've got this appointment with my dentist tomorrow. Do you want me to refer you? Cause looking at that mouth you need some help. Or do you need glasses, my doctor does both." Ranma taunted the ogre hoping to use its massive strength to take out a few of his opponents.

The other monsters laughed, howled, or clicked their mandibles in amusement. "Gratch no have bad breath," the massive demon bellowed as it began swinging its monstrous fists at its allies. Unfortunately, while Gratch may have been a big guy, he wasn't that strong. A few of the smaller demons quickly knocked him unconscious once he turned away from fighting Ranma.

Ranma's breath was haggard, and he took the moment to catch his breath and look for a way out. The monsters were making jeering noises, and were arguing about who would get to go into the ring next. Ranma hadn't been able to kill any of them, but he'd fought his way past the first group which had charged in. It had been easy enough to manipulate them into hitting each other. But now it seemed like the demons were content to play with him. Which meant it was now one on one.

"He's like a little mouse surrounded by the cats. Nowhere to run." Three human looking things emerged from the crowd. Something was off about them. Something was really off about them. Ranma, despite fighting monsters a great deal stronger then him, hadn't let himself feel the slightest bit of fear. But right now he was starting to feel a burning desire to get out of there.

The three humans began to change into massive lion-like demons. The other monsters laughed at the fearful expression plastered on Ranma's face. "What's the matter human? Cat got your tongue?" The lead cat demon spoke with a purr in its voice.

"Caaaaaaaaat!" Ranma tried to run, but he was quickly batted down by the one of the monstrous felines. The demon cat held him under a single paw. Ranma struggled fiercely for a moment before going limp.

"I think the human died," spoke one of the bystanders.

"Can humans die from fear?" asked one of the demons cats.

"Of course, my magnificent form was far too much for him," spoke the large lion that had pinned down the martial artist. Then the demon felt something odd. Like he was missing a limb.

"Mrrrrrrroooowwww."

* * *

…

_Present Day_

Kasumi looked over at Ranma as he stopped talking. "And then what happened?"

Ranma just pulled on his pig tail. "Well those demon things were kind of C-c-cat demons. And well… I don't know what happened afterwards."

Kasumi clearly didn't like how the story had ended. "But how did you survive? You were surrounded; you can't just leave a story like this Ranma, it's not polite." In her agitation, she knocked over a nearby glass. Ranma quickly grabbed it before it could smash on the floor.

"The Neko-ken…" Ranma finally ground out. Seeing Kasumi's blank expression Ranma continued, "The Neko-ken… alright. I couldn't beat the stupid things and then I blanked out." Ranma hated the blasted technique. It was a crippling weakness, but it still saved him more times than he would like to admit. It helped him against the old ghoul, and a few other opponents.

"But if you couldn't beat those demons on your own, then how did something like that help you?"

"Don't know." Ranma shrugged "Pops told me he found me more dead than alive after everything, and I believe him too. I couldn't move for weeks, and it took me a few months to recover. But I asked around later, and it seems that all that talk pops and Mr. Tendo are always spouting has some truth to it. A martial artist can kill demons, with the Neko-ken or some other high end chi techniques. I wouldn't be surprised if the old ghoul knew some nasty things too."

Kasumi looked as though she wanted to know more about the fight. To know how it ended, and most of all what happened. But questioning Ranma would be useless, as Ranma knew nothing about what happened after he blanked out. Finally Kasumi smiled at Ranma comfortingly. "Still you were able to survive, and that's amazing Ranma."

"Not really, I mean now I could probably beat them without the Neko-ken." It irked Ranma that his ultimate attack, at that age, involved going berserk with no control. Now Ranma had a bunch of techniques that could probably work fairly well.

Deciding to wrap up the rest of the story, Ranma quickly continued "After that, me and pops took off and left London. I was pretty beat up then, and I never had a chance to see V-chan before we set out. Shortly after that V-chan retired." Ranma shrugged, before leaving the room.

Kasumi looked pensively after his retreating form. But she didn't stop him from leaving.

…

The scouts were quiet as Minako's tale finally wound to its conclusion. "And that's how Ranma Saotome died. Fighting dozens of demons, which no human could stand against." Minako gave a forced grin. Despite her change in perspective, it was still a painful story for her.

Usagi burst into tears, and did a flying glomp towards Minako. "That's so sad Minako. Bbbut I'm sure Ranma loved you."

The other scouts were quiet, not knowing what else to say. Really there wasn't much one could say after such a story.

"That's why tomorrow I'm going to go back to Nerima and see Genma. I want to show him how strong I've become, and that I've honored Ranma's sacrifice. And to tell him everything that happened that night. He deserves to know the whole story." Seeing both Makoto and Usagi staring very determinedly at herself, Minako quickly added "Of course I won't be going alone."

"Of course not." Makoto pumped her arm. "And if that doesn't work, we'll keep on trying."

"Right!" The other four cheered. Minako smiled softly. She was very grateful for her friends. Once she might have wondered why she deserved such friends, but now she was proud to stand beside them.

* * *

…

_5 years previously _

_The Unknown Story_

Genma had arrived at the meeting place, only to find the boy's pack discarded on the ground. Grumbling about disrespectful sons, he leaned over and picked it up. Then he felt it, that faint aura. A demon had been here. In light of this, the pack on the ground took on a newer more sinister meaning. Genma threw both packs into a nearby tree, before taking off after his wayward son.

It wasn't long before he reached a now destroyed building. This close to the building Genma could feel the evil rolling off it in waves. Genma wouldn't be surprised if anyone with a hint of spiritual power wouldn't be arriving soon. Whatever had been here must have cloaked its presence well.

Leaving no time to waste, Genma began to desperately search threw the gravel for his son. Had he not trained his son enough? Had he instilled too much belief in Ranma about his own prowess? No time for recriminations, Genma searched and then he heard it.

"Mrrrowwww." Genma turned and saw Ranma's injured form. Ranma was bleeding from many wounds, and his right arm hung listlessly. The cat Ranma hissed at Genma weakly. It had never liked Genma at the best of times. But it was far too weak to run away when Genma approached it, and subsequently used a few quick shiatsu pressure point techniques. Genma caught his now sleeping son, before Ranma's prone body collapsed.

"It appears you have much to learn in the art still, my boy."

"Lord Denburite? Lord Denburite?" a shadowed form called out. The youma turned towards Genma and his son. It was a ugly thing, made even more horrifying by the three large gashes that ran across its chest. "You. You dared to do this to me, human? Die!" The demon lunged forward trying to grab Ranma.

"Fanged Fingers of Welcome Gate!" Genma's strike speared through the tough hide of the monster in a single motion. Even as the demon drained energy from Genma in its death throws, Genma remained standing. Shaking his head, Genma decided it was far past time to leave London.

…

A day after chaining Ranma into a ship's medical bay to heal (the boy would never have stayed still otherwise), Genma made one last look around the city for that girl. The ship bearing both him and his son would depart at first light tomorrow. But Genma wanted to take care of the last few loose strings.

He found the young girl roughly tieing up some crooks over in the shopping district. From the way the criminals looked, she clearly hadn't held much back. "Girl." The young teen looked up. She glanced at him and then lowered her head.

"I'm sorry, it's my fault."

"Of course it's your fault, because of your negligence last night, my son is in his current state. My son could no more fight against demons, and win, than any other normal martial artist." This was something Genma planned on fixing once Ranma was up and running again. A few trips to some esoteric training grounds and temples seemed to be in order.

In Genma's haste to criticize and his own distraction, her he failed to notice the tears that rolled down her cheeks. Unlike Genma, who knew Ranma was alive, she believed him dead.

"Train harder girl, so that when you next meet my son you can hold up your head and face him. When next we meet you had best be my son's equal in combat." Genma left it unsaid that he knew Ranma would probably challenge her immediately afterwards. Before saying anything else, or giving her the chance to arrest him, Genma took off for the hills.

If Genma was lucky, maybe Ranma would marry her. Or if not, there were 13 other fine young female fighters that Genma had arranged engagements with. Why his son would have the pick of the crop, when the time came. Of course the fact that Genma had taken full advantage of his son's eligibility also went unsaid. So what if he stole, errr appropriated… commandeered the dowry for his own use. The girls were getting the once in a lifetime chance to marry his son. Genma wondered what sort of dowry a magical girl had? Well it was too late now to go back and make arrangements with her parents now.

It wasn't until an unfortunate event in Tibet that Genma learned the folly of engaging his son to as many women as he had. In the years that followed Genma decided the only way to go was the Tendo fiancée. No crazy mother in laws there, or traditions of magically branding Genma into following the contract.

* * *

...

Omake:

_Or the fight sequence I couldn't find a way to include logically with the people narrating not knowing what happened. This scene has been requested by my proofreader. Told form the perspective of Neko-Ranma_

Neko-Ranma was not happy. No he was not. A large non-cat cat had pinned Neko-Ranma down, and Neko-Ranma did not like this at all. Lashing out with his claws the pig tailed cat quickly deprived the unclean thing of its offending appendage.

Scampering away, Neko-Ranma let loose a powerful battle cry. His back arched in challenge. He would show these foul unclean things pain for having dared to pretend to be cats.

"I think the human has some fight left in him," spoke one of the not-cat cats.

"Kill the human!" The injured beast yowled as it clutched its stump of an arm.

But Neko-Ranma didn't wait for the unclean things to come to him. He was a cat, and as such was far beyond these puny unclean things. Neko-Ranma pounced into the midst of the unclean one's pride. They tried to catch Neko-Ranma, but Neko-Ranma was far too fast.

A demon slammed the floor barely missing Neko-Ranma, only to have its arm lacerated. A demon breathed fire, only to have Neko-Ranma whirl away, causing the fire to burn the demon's allies. A hundred talons reached for Neko-Ranma, clutching and stabbing, only to have cruel unyielding pain for their reward.

But Neko-Ranma was not perfect. No cat can fight forever, and Neko-Ranma, despite his form, was only a cat.

Many demons died beneath his claws, but many more came in. Against claws that tear, and fangs that pierce, Neko-Ranma began to slowly weaken. It came slowly, a scratch here, a bite there, all attackers rewarded with death, but the injuries built up.

Finally, a large demon slammed into Neko-Ranma's arm. A crack could be heard as Neko-Ranma flew through the air into a wall. Neko-Ranma knew his paw was now useless. With only one set of claws, it wasn't going to be much more of a fight.

Neko-Ranma hissed as the unclean demons backed him into a corner. Neko-Ranma would die, he knew. There was no way around it. But like all cats, Neko-Ranma would die in a method of his choosing. He drew on the last of his power, and yowled a final cry to the heavens and charged. Neko-Ranma's once small claws grew large, each swipe tore into the ground and walls around it. The great building shuddered as the demons once again renewed their assault. Demons smashed the walls by accident in their attempts to catch Neko-Ranma, and other demons were sent flying into the wall in pain.

And then the world began to crumble and fall.

Large chunks of stone, and wood came crashing down as Neko-Ranma and the demons danced to one final song, oblivious to the destruction around them.

…

Neko-Ranma was weak, far weaker then he had ever been. Each muscle in his odd body was hurting, and he had no energy with which to heal. He forced himself out from under the rubble. The demon's scent was weak on the air. None remained. Neko-Ranma was happy.

He heard something amongst the ruins. Making his way slowly he found the bald fat one. The one who made Neko-Ranma have this odd body. Neko-Ranma hissed, and wanted to play with the bald one. But Neko-Ranma was too weak. The bald one quickly moved close and then Ranma fell into darkness.

Neko-Ranma was content, as only a cat can be. The enemy was dead, and now was the time to sleep, and eat. Neko-Ranma slept well until he next awoke.


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: I do not own, or claim to own and of the below characters, as they are owned by peoples far greater than myself._

_Authors Notes: Well first off, I must apologize for the delay in posting. It is my hope that people enjoy the story regardless of the wait. Hopefully the next chapter will take less time. _

_As always I enjoy feedback about how the characters are portrayed, the flow of dialogue, and anything that is pointed out._

_This chapter has __been beta read, but any mistakes are my own. Also minor changes have been done to chapter 3 to tighten the dialogue between Minako and Ukyo. Hopefully it's better now._

_Also to Fuchsin not signed in- I would be happy to answer any question you might have but I can't find any account with the name Fuchsin. If you send me a pm I will answer.  
_

* * *

_..._

Haruka glanced around the ward which she found herself in. It looked like any other place in Tokyo. Lots of buildings, streets, people; nothing unusual really.

"Are you sure we shouldn't wait for the others, Haruka?" Michiru asked her lover quietly. Michiru would have been willing to wait until Sunday when the other scouts would be free to assist in the search for the gnarled pervert.

"You heard what Pluto said, didn't you? We have no idea why he's here, other than to cause and bring as much trouble as possible. He could leave any day before Sunday." Haruka was more than a little bitter about the old man. Perhaps it was the groping, or perhaps it was the theft of her undergarment, regardless Haruka was out for blood. "I'm not about to let him get away with what he did … might do to others." Even now Haruka accepted the Princess' rules about fighting. Only in the defense of others, and never in revenge, was fighting allowed. Though Haruka thought it might have been a different story if Usagi had been the one groped. And even if Usagi had still been feeling forgiving, it was likely Mamoru would have led the scouts as a lynch mob to find Happosai.

Michiru nodded. While she wasn't entirely convinced that this was the best course of action, it was obviously important to Haruka, and for reasons Michiru could empathize with. "Just remember, he's still human, no matter what he can do. Usagi would… not like it if Happosai were killed." Usagi would be more than unhappy, even if it was likely that the princess would forgive her friends almost anything.

"I know." Haruka ground out, but then her rather annoyed grimace turned a bit feral. "But a few World Shakings wouldn't matter much." Haruka really hadn't forgiven yesterday's actions one bit. No she hadn't.

…

Hotaru glanced nervously down the street after two of her adoptive parents. Hotaru knew that she'd be late for school from this excursion. Actually, considering the time, even if she took the train back right this moment, she'd arrive an hour late. But this was more important than that. What had happened yesterday had bothered Hotaru for many reasons.

Her helplessness at protecting her adoptive family was her largest concern. There was also the lesser, and more hidden, concern that she might be next. Of course, as any Nerimian could have told her, those fears were mostly groundless. Happosai for all his flaws, evils, and all around nastiness, never bothered children under a certain age. And Hotaru, despite her psychological age, was physically still a little too young for Happosai to bother.

Hotaru looked around the corner again and noticed her current observed, not spied upon, subjects had escaped. Dashing around the corner, Hotaru looked around for them. It was at this point a loud yell was heard from her left.

"I can't be a delinquent!" Was all Hotaru heard, before something crashed into her and bowled her over.

"Owww." Cried the young girl, that was now on top of Hotaru's body, rubbing her head. The girl was dressed oddly for a child, and had clearly been running without paying attention to where she was going. The young girl blushed crimson when she realized her current landing place was Hotaru's rather hurt looking form. The girl jumped off and bowed. "I'm so sorry." The young school girl looked nervously at Hotaru and bowed again. "I was running late and I didn't see you."

Hotaru blinked and sat up slowly. Crashing into the ground after being nearly tackled by a pintsized locomotive was definitely not pleasant. "It's ok, just ahh watch where you're going next time, ok?" Hotaru couldn't find it in her self to berate the young child before her.

The young child nodded eagerly. "My name's Ninomiya Hinako, I'm so sorry." Hinako repeated her earlier apology and bowed again ever so cutely. Hotaru glanced down the street and grimaced as she could no longer see her guardians.

Hinako dusted herself off and glanced at her wrist watch. Starting to sniffle the young girl started to wail, "Noooo, now I'll never make it. I can't be late, what sort of example would I be if I was late." Hinako sniffed. "I'd be a delinquent that's what, no one would ever respect me again, especially Saotome-san." Hotaru assumed Saotome was probably a boy Hinako had a crush on.

The senshi of silence had been planning on slipping off, but the distraught child tugged on her heart strings. "We can still make it can't we? I'll go with you and explain why you're late, ok?"

Hinako nodded eagerly. "You will?" Seeing Hotaru's confirmation, the young girl beamed. "If I was showing a transfer student around, no one would question me. Of course I'd be late, if I was giving a tour of the building." Hinako's expression began to look a little lost in thought.

"Ahh, I don't think I would fit in at your school, I'm the wrong age." As much as Hotaru knew she was sometimes mistaken for an elementary school child, she was still in late middle school. Well her records claimed as such. It was a confusing business due to the year off due to reincarnation, and the Mistress Nine affair. Should she be in high school or middle school? Or maybe preschool, since her current body was less than a year old? Regardless Hotaru was quite happy being a middle school student and disliked being mistaken for younger.

Hinako was already dragging her along down the street. "No, see you won't look a bit out of place." Hotaru allowed herself to be dragged along as a young child's excuse for being late. Hopefully the child's teacher was an understanding person.

…

In Nerima there are many unusual sites, even by the standards of a ward that housed the last bastion of some of the most obscure martial art styles. In any other city or ward, the site of a young man walking along the top of a chain link fence would have provoked staring, or at least comment.

Here in Nerima, it was an everyday occurrence. Beside Ranma walked Akane, on the sidewalk below. Neither was in any hurry to reach the school, as for once, they had left early enough to arrive in plenty of time. Ranma was in his own world at the moment.

It had bothered him talking about V-chan like that. It was probably the reason that he had never mentioned it in the two years he had been at the Dojo. Well that, and the fact that he wasn't the sort to talk about that sort of thing.

That entire last day in London had left a bitter taste in Ranma's mouth.

Just thinking about V-chan caused him to compare Akane to his old friend. He shook his head, another thing he didn't dwell on.

…

Akane glanced at Ranma for what seemed the hundredth time since leaving the Tendo Dojo. Ranma had been acting quiet since last night. Trying to pinpoint the exact time had lead Akane to the conclusion that something had happened before dinner, but after arriving home.

In normal circumstances, Akane might have been a bit suspicious of Ranma's uncharacteristic silence. But there was nothing else. He wasn't running off anywhere, nor was he suddenly babbling strange excuses. None of his _other_ fiancées dropped by recently either. He was just quiet, and that honestly bothered Akane more than anything else.

A quiet Ranma didn't exist in her view of him. Well, other then that one time with the curse of silence, or that weird Silence Game Martial Arts contest Ranma had gotten into. But other than those rare times, he was normally loud and energetic.

Finally, having enough, she kicked the fence. Ranma moved his arms to redistribute his weight and avoid falling into the river below. "What was that for tomboy?"

Akane grimaced at the nickname but decided to ignore it, for now at least. "Stop being so moody, it's not like you. If there's a problem, deal with it, or at least tell someone." Akane knew that the odds of Ranma actually telling someone about a problem was extremely unlikely at the best of times. And things were still a bit strained from the latest event in their lives. How was Akane supposed to know there was a ring of flatulence that couldn't be removed except by certain unusual methods? He didn't have to try to kiss that older woman.

"I'm not moody, I'm just thinking 'bout some stuff."

"Which is why you've barely said a word all day. And don't think I didn't notice how quickly your morning spar ended."

"Pops was just being lazy." Akane wasn't so sure about that. Judging from the way Genma had been nursing his arm afterwards, the fight had been a little more vehement then normal.

"Right. Well if you're worried about those rumours, well don't be. It'll blow over soon enough. Short of one of the Senshi actually coming by, I don't think we'll ever know the truth." Akane wasn't entirely sure she believed it. Ranma helped one of the Senshi? Well if anyone could, it was Ranma. But it still sounded so unbelievable.

"Why would one of those fakes know anything about V-chan?"

"Fine, Sailor V isn't Sailor Venus. But they should know something about her." Actually ,like most people, Akane was pretty sure Sailor V had become Venus. Even the names were pretty similar. But trying to convince Ranma of that was hopeless.

"You think they would?" Akane glanced up at Ranma's thoughtful expression. "Maybe I should go meet up with one of them or something. Even if they don't, they should be decent fighters. Kind of; even if they are fakes." Akane kicked the fence causing Ranma to fall into the river on the other side of the fence. "Gahh."

"Jerk!" It wasn't that Akane was jealous or anything. Just because Ranma would actually consider sparring with the Senshi, and not her.

…

It took a little over half an hour for Hinako to lead Hotaru to the school in question. It had been a long and rather twisted route hampered by odd sights and sounds. No wonder the young girl had been convinced she'd be late.

Hotaru's first reaction to arriving at the large high school was confusion. "Are you sure we're at the right place? This high school is meant for older children…" Hotaru tried to look circumspectly at Hinako. Hinako didn't look or sound like a child genius, or someone who was 16.

Hinako turned and looked at Hotaru looking peeved. "But I DO go to this school. Why does everyone keep asking me that? I know I look a little young but I definitely teach here." The young Hinako glanced around the abandoned yard. "Everyone's inside. Remember you're the transfer student… Ahh what was your name again?" Hinako look curiously up at Hotaru.

"Hotaru Tomoe. But are you sure you…did you say teach?" The odd part of what Hinako had said finally caught up to Hotaru. But before the Senshi of silence could ask any more questions, Hinako pulled Hotaru forward. At which point the purple haired senshi saw a large stuffed lion morosely making his way across the field.

Hinako simply waved with one hand and said "Good morning Orihara-sensei."

The lion turned and looked at Hinako and her abducted new friend, and shook his head. From this angle, Hotaru could see a middle aged balding man in the suit. "It's Saotome's fault. Before him, the principal never visited. Before him neither did the other martial artists, not often at least." This last was spoken as a curse. "Why? Why did my peaceful life have to end like that?" The rather odd man began gesturing to the heavens.

Hotaru allowed herself to be half dragged, half led into the school in her state of confusion. "Who was that man? Is he a teacher here?" Teachers at Hotaru's school never dressed up like that.

"Yep, that's Orihara, he's the gym teacher." In a stage whisper Hinako stated. "He's not very good at it. Most of the students are better than him" Hotaru just nodded her head absently, as she saw a large wood plank patched hole in the wall. It looked suspiciously human shaped too. "Ignore that." Hotaru nodded again. Was that a pig tail shaped part near the head on that hole? Surely pigtails couldn't go through walls like that. It was clearly some sort of stunt.

"It's Hinako-sensei, clean up the desks." A voice from inside the classroom down the hallway called out. Suddenly a colophony of desks being dragged into place was heard from inside a nearby classroom. Then silence.

Hinako pointed to the classroom where the noise had come from. "That's my room over there."

Hotaru just nodded...again, there was very little about this school that made sense. Hinako burst out, "I bet that was a super secret signal for something. Oh my students love me; I bet there's a surprise party… maybe a surprise cake." The gleeful child nearly jerked Hotaru off her feet in her rush to reach the class room. Upon entering the class room, Hinako let loose a sigh of disappointment and scuffed the floor with a small kick. There was no cake.

Hotaru looked around the strange classroom she had been forced into. The students looked normal, for all but a few, were sweating heavily and looking nervously at the clock. Hinako noticed the looks and quickly burst out, "I know everyone's sad about my being late, but I'm not a delinquent. I had a valid reason; this is our new Transfer student." Hinako gestured towards Hotaru.

The entire situation felt so unreal that all Hotaru could do was wave and smile tentatively. Had she fallen asleep on the train, or merely wandered into some strange other worldly place? A youth from the middle of the room asked rudely "So basically you were late and grabbed her to use an excuse? Right?"

Hinako nodded her head quickly. "That's it exactly," her eyes widened, as she realized what she was admitting to. "I mean no, she's a transfer student."

"For how long?" The youth grinned broadly.

"A day." Hinako mumbled, and fidgeted with her hands. "Anyways, we have lessons to start with. This is Hotaru Tomoe." The class greeted the young Senshi loudly. "You can sit beside Tendo-san." Hinako pointed to a young girl near the front who looked almost uncannily like Ami.

After Hotaru was practically forced into her new seat, the young teacher began trying to teach. It was perhaps the cutest and oddest thing Hotaru had ever seen. The child teacher scribbled all over the board about things like 'this is really important for the test', 'this is really, really, really important', and all sorts of other odd things beside some basic English verbs.

The Ami look-a-like leaned over closer to Hotaru "Sorry about this, Hinako-sensei is a bit odd. If you want, you can probably slip away after this class. None of the other teachers should mind. And if anyone asks why you aren't in uniform, just tell them Ninomiya-sensei brought you here. They won't bother you after that."

A louder male voice came from behind them "Only because they know the Principal likes her, and she scares the hell out of the normal teachers." Hotaru glanced behind her. It was the pig tailed youth that had mouthed back to Hinako earlier.

"Name's Ranma Saotome, Pleased to meet you." He nodded slightly from his spot a row back and a few seats over.

If it had been any teacher other than Hinako-sensei, it was likely that the talking would have been easily noticed. But as the teacher was currently starting to draw a kitten on the board, the conversation passed unnoticed.

"Ranma ,stop bothering the new girl. My name is Akane Tendo. Pleased to meet you." Akane glared at the pigtailed youth before smiling at Hotaru.

Saotome-san rolled his eyes. "Sheesh just because one or two transfer students…"

"There were nine. I counted." Akane interrupted bitterly.

"Fine. Just because a couple of transfer students were engaged to me, isn't any reason to think I'm engaged to this one." The youth suddenly looked worried. "I mean, your family doesn't have any old promises with a panda or a guy named Genma involving marriage, right? Right?" At Hotaru's lack of response, the black haired youth seemed to get more and more agitated.

"Nnno. I don't think so." Hotaru finally answered. Why someone would ask such a question was beyond her, but for some reason her words put both students at ease.

"No strange family martial artists that were defeated by either me or my pops, and you're here for revenge?" Hotaru shook her head. "Cursed objects that need breaking?" Again Hotaru shook her head. "Anything magical about you or your family?" Hotaru paused in shock before shaking her head. It was the first time she'd ever been asked anything close to whether or not she was a magical girl.

Saotome-san continued talking, "See, nothing to worry about Akane. She just had some bad luck running into Hinako-sensei before school." The pig tailed youth grinned and relaxed back in his seat only to notice a small pint sized teacher glaring at him from across the room.

"No talking in class." The glare continued from the tiny locomotive.

"We're just letting the new kid know a few things. Don't want her freaking out 'cause you kidnapped her." The youth grinned cockily at the teacher.

"I didn't kidnap her, she volunteered." Hinako pouted at the accusation.

The rest of the class looked away. As long as the police didn't get involved, which they never did, none of the students would question their teacher. "Really she did!" Hinako jumped up and down.

Hinako drew a small coin from her pocket and made some gestures with it "No delinquents talking in class." Saotome-san jumped onto the roof.

"Gahh. Watch where' you're pointing that thing." Hotaru took a moment just to make sure she was seeing correctly. Yes the ordinary looking Ranma was now holding onto the light fixture and pressing himself flat against the ceiling of the room.

At this point, Hotaru nearly decided to write the entire day off as indigestion. Clearly that last helping of rice at dinner had not gone down well. Young men simply didn't cling to ceilings like that.

Then students sitting near the seat that Saotome-san had been in until recently began toppling over from exhaustion. Hinako also grew a good many feet, and turned into what could only be described as a voluptuous teacher as the energy from the students was absorbed through her coin. Hotaru stared at the once little girl, slowly realizing that Hinako just might be a demon.

..

Happosai was enjoying a leisurely respite from yesterday's brief scuffle with that hooligan Pantyhose. Of course Happosai's ideas of leisure activities include such things as panty raids.

Which was why, most likely, the hoard of angry housewives was following him. Happosai only wished it was the weekend when the cute office women would also have their laundry available. But one had to make due with what one had. Truly Happosai's life was the epitome of hardship, or was that causing hardship? Happosai shrugged his aged shoulders, it wasn't important.

"Hahahaha, what a haul." He cackled gleefully. It was at this point he felt something, almost like that one time back in… Happosai quickly threw his haul out of the way as he dodged a large blue orb of destruction that made its way towards him.

Only to watch in growing horror as an orange blast of magic torn his hard won haul to dust. "Nooooo, my pretties." Oh what had such a poor old man such as himself done to deserve such a thing? Actually, he could think of a few minor indiscretions, but surely the pretties hadn't done anything to deserve such harsh treatment?

Turning around he saw the vile perpetrators of the crime. Both of them posed in a way that looked more alluring than scary. The lead one in yellow yelled out. "Surrender now and I won't hurt you too much, I mean I… promise not to hurt you." The last part was bitten out by the blond woman. Clearly this was not an outcome she wanted.

"Ahh, vile criminals, you ruined my pretties. You must be the vile panty thieves that I've heard so much about, destroying my wondrous haul." He gestured harshly towards the duo. Normally Happosai didn't really fight woman, but if they were anything like Setsu-chan, well they would obviously have nice pretties. "I'll just have to replace them with yours." His tiny paws began to make groping motions and his eyes gleamed.

The blue haired girl glared at him, and the girl with the underdeveloped chest (not that there was anything wrong with this in Happosai's mind) smirked happily when she found out that he wasn't coming quietly. Springing into action Happosai leapt towards the duo "Sweeto!"

…

The five inner senshi were also in the nearby area, though for entirely different reasons. Ami had pointed out that the best way to avoid any unpleasantness with Happosai was to go before the situation got any worse.

Even if that meant skipping school. This was something Ami had fretted about the entire train ride down. Surely the teacher wouldn't cover anything too important. To make sure she didn't miss anything, Ami promised herself to read the entire math textbook before the exam in a month's time. Which she would have done normally, but this time it would be more important to do so.

Minako had more important things to worry about. Such as: what to say to the man whose son she had known. After last night Minako had finally realized something important. That it wasn't her fault. Sure, if she hadn't been there Ranma wouldn't have come, but it was always Ranma's choice.

While the others talked about the mysterious Happosai, Minako relived the long months that she had known the youth in London. The fights, the arguments, and above all, the friendship. Maybe it was that time was making the heart grow rose colored glasses, but from her memories, Ranma had been a friend in his own way.

The Tendo Dojo had been surprisingly easy to find. It even had an address in the phone book stating Tendo's School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Why Genma had waited all this time was likely due to the difficulty of finding out the location of the Sailor Scouts. It was only after one too many large scale fights that news media over seas began reporting on the mysterious Sailor Scouts. Or at least that was Rei's opinion as to why it had taken so long.

"Mina, remember we're all here, not matter what happens. We're not leaving until Saotome-san understands what really happened." Usagi's optimistic viewpoint never failed to bolster Minako's flagging spirit.

"Thanks Usagi, I'll keep that in mind." Minako grinned at her fellow blond haired friend.

Makoto put her hand on Minako's shoulder. "And don't worry about any fighting; we'll take care of it. You just get to Genma, alright?" The scouts had drawn one thing from Setsuna's presentation, that Happosai was deadly. So too were most practitioners of Anything Goes. Going into a school of unknown number of enemies might be dangerous, but it was the best path open to them.

Ducking into a nearby ally only a block away from the Dojo, the inner senshi transformed into their uniforms. Sailor Venus took a moment to consider which uniform to use. But she finally decided on her Venus form. Really everyone knew that Sailor V was Sailor Venus, and wearing the old uniform might bring back unpleasant memories for Genma. Actually it brought back unpleasant memories for Minako too.

Despite the earlier comradery the group became quiet as they approached the foreboding gates of the Tendo Dojo. Minako noticed a small sign that stated that all challengers were to enter around back. Clearly the school didn't like people knowing how badly they destroyed their opponents. Taking a deep breath Minako pushed open the gates and called out "Hello, I would like to speak to Genma Saotome."

The inside of the yard was very traditional. The scouts fanned out slightly expecting an attack or at least acknowledgment any second. "One moment, please." A young woman's voice came from the house. The rest of the scouts, save Minako and Usagi, tensed up and looked around for anything untoward.

Finally, a young brown haired woman opened the door, took one look at the group, and gave a slight squeak before dashing back into the house. Minako called after her "Please wait, we just want to talk. We're not here to fight." The group approached the door the young woman had briefly appeared in. The scouts shared a glance not sure whether they should show themselves in or wait a while longer.

Usagi simply opened the door blithely and walked right in. "Hello, miss, our friend would like to speak with you. Please." Never one to be too concerned about politeness, Usagi just ignored the conventions and entered the house's foyer.

"Meatball head, you don't just walk into someone else's house like that."

Usagi was quick to defend herself. "Unless they're an enemy."

"Well if they weren't, now they might be."

Then, before Usagi could protest further, the young woman from before reappeared in front of the scouts, holding a large collection of manga and posters, "Oh, I'm so sorry for the wait. I simply had to grab a few things." Her cheeks were slightly red from exertion.

"It's no problem." Usagi smiled. "Uh forgive the intrusion." Usagi quickly apologized. Even if this was a possible headquarters of evil doers, it never failed to be polite.

"Oh, it's quite alright. We have many people who barge in here regularly, and not one of them is sorry about the mess they make." The young woman looked only mildly put off at the mention of the previous guests. "My name is Kasumi Tendo, I am honored to meet your acquaintance." The young woman bowed slightly to the scouts while still clutching the assortment of books and sailor scout paraphernalia. Kasumi then looked thoughtful. "But I'm assuming you're not here to speak to me, this visit has something to do with Ranma, doesn't it?"

Minako nodded slightly. Clearly this girl, despite her lack of aggression, knew what had happened in London. "Yes. I was hoping to speak to Genma about what happened. I'm guess you heard about it?"

"Yes, Ranma told me the other day." Kasumi gave a beatific smile, belying the rather earth shattering nature of her statement.

"Ranma? Excuse me, but what did you say?" Minako asked quietly, as she refused to believe she'd heard right.

Kasumi looked thoughtful and then said apologetically "I'm sorry, I should have been aware that it was a private matter, but Ranma was willing to talk about it, and it was such a long time ago, that I had assumed it wouldn't matter. He didn't say anything about who you were under the mask or anything. I would assume that to be a secret. But I won't repeat the story if you don't want me to." Kasumi looked a bit distressed by the thought of her inadvertent prying into her hero's life. It had been rather personal.

"He-He's dead. He died years ago." Minako's confusion was obvious across her face. Never, had she even hoped, or allowed herself to hope that her rival was alive. "Ranma died over 4 years ago, in London."

"No, why would you think that?" Kasumi looked a bit confused by that. "I saw him just this morning; he's currently at Furriken High School." Kasumi pursed her lips in thought and nodded slightly to herself. "He told me about what happened in London, and I'm sure he'd love to see you again. I had assumed you came to visit him. But I'm sure he had no idea you thought he was dead."

The other scouts glanced at Minako looking a mixture of concern and hope. Usagi in particular decided to cross her fingers.

"Saotome, Ranma Saotome, heir of the Saotome Branch of the Anything Goes School of Martial arts." Minako repeated, wanting to be sure that it was the right Ranma. But inside, she felt something long gone, stirring.

"Yes. Though grandfather Happosai recently named him heir of the Main Branch. But yes, that is the Ranma I'm speaking about."

Not bothering to hear anymore Minako took off. Turning around she hopped over the fence and dashed down the street using all of the magical supplementation her suit could provide. If that girl was speaking the truth… Well, Minako wasn't sure what she would do. But regardless, that jerk let her think he was dead. The only question was how would he pay for it? A slap, or a kiss? Minako wasn't sure, but she hoped to find out.

…

Kasumi watched as Ranma's friend took off. The other scouts turned to follow, but as much as Kasumi wanted the apparent misunderstanding cleared up, she had to ask the other scouts something; as many of the visitors to the dojo only made a single appearance and never returned. "Excuse me, but if it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you please sign a few things? I've watched every Sailor Scout episode and read every chapter. I'm a huge fan of yours, Sailor Moon." Kasumi reached out and grasped Sailor Moon's hand.

Sailor Moon gave an embarrassed laugh. "I'm sorry, but we really have to go." After taking a look at Kasumi's face, the Senshi quickly changed her mind. "I mean of course."

The other senshi looked annoyed, but Kasumi quickly corralled them into signing a few dozen posters, books, and other memorabilia. Living in a household full of super powered humans, and nearly daily destruction, had given Kasumi a few useful skills. Namely the ability to request things in such a way that no one could ever refuse and not feel like they had done something unforgivable.

It was quickly becoming the happiest day of Kasumi's life. The only way it could have been better would have been if Dr. Tofu got over his silly act and asked her out properly. But such a thing was unlikely to say the least, so Kasumi contented herself to the knowledge that she'd soon have signed books by most of the Sailor Scouts. Noticing that Sailor Mars was edging towards the door Kasumi quickly snagged the girl and gave her a few more books to sign.

…

Hotaru wasn't quite sure what to make of this school. She had seen a young child teacher turn into a full grown woman in seconds, only to turn back into a young child again, after just missing Ranma with some sort of energy blast. Hinako had then proceeded to continue her 'lesson'. This, in Hotaru's mind, wasn't so much a lesson, as much as Hinako playing games and forcing everyone to read their texts.

No one even seemed to comment on the half drained students. The drained students had eventually managed to drag themselves back into their seats to start studying. This entire school was beyond bizarre. If people had fled the room, Hotaru might have tried killing the demon, but everyone took it as par for the course of an average day.

Since the demon teacher didn't seem to be doing any real harm, Hotaru decided to wait before killing it. Just to be sure.

Ranma on the other hand, was just as unusual. As, after getting into another argument with Tendo-san, Ranma had finally been drained only to get back up moments later and grudgingly pay attention to the now grown up teacher. Most humans when they were drained stayed down for a while like the boys from earlier.

The new grown up version of Hinako, which stayed around this time, wasn't nearly so bad at teaching. In fact if Hotaru hadn't seen the shifts back and forth, she would have assumed Hinako-sensei to be a normal teacher.

After Hinako finally concluded her lesson and left the room for the next teacher to arrive, Tendo-san looked over and asked quietly. "Now's your chance if you want to leave. I'm guessing you're not here voluntarily."

"Oh well, I was thinking of staying a bit longer, if that's all right." Since Saturn couldn't catch up to her parents, the best she could do was stay and observe this rather unusual school. "What happened earlier? It was like all of those students were drained of energy."

Saotome-san shrugged, like it was completely normal. "Oh that, well technically it's some sort of health regime, allowing her to drain energy from others."

"Health regime?" Hotaru had heard stories about the Doom Tree needing energy to heal itself, but none of the enemies she had heard about were so brazen as to drain energy in front of an entire class of students. Most worked a lot more covertly till forced to show their hand.

"Yeah, well that's what the old lech calls it." Seeing Hotaru's uncomprehending look, "Happosai, little wrinkled gnome that yells sweeto."

Hotaru blanched. That name definitely struck a bell. Saotome-san nodded and continued "Thought you'd know him. Anyways, he taught it to her back in the day, and the only way to stop it is to… well touch her."

"Which you aren't going to do again, right?" It was half threat, half question from the irate looking Tendo-san.

"Oh course not." Saotome-san blushed in embarrassment. "Not after how much time it took last time. I mean, sure, it would be nice to stop her draining technique." He then shrugged.

"What you mean, a nice time stopping her attack?" Tendo-san glared at the pigtailed youth, and he quickly tried to backpedal.

But it was too late for Saotome, and the two quickly descended into bickering that resulted in books and other objects, being thrown at the pigtailed youth.

Perhaps it said something about Hotaru, but she was shortly able to tune the two students out like the rest of the class.

During the following classes Hotaru wondered if she had imagined the entire thing. There wasn't anything unusual about the other classes. As lunch approached, Hotaru realized something rather important. As she hadn't been planning on spending the entire day in Nerima, she hadn't brought a lunch.

It was at this point a young voice declared. "Where's your lunch?" It was Hinako who, look curiously over Hotaru's shoulder.

"Ummm well." Hotaru tried to think of a reason. "I forgot it. I certainly wasn't trying to skip school and follow my parents." Hotaru watched as the young teacher nodded eagerly believing the amazingly skillful lie. Hotaru almost felt bad about it..

"Oh, well you can share mine. It wouldn't do for the transfer student to go hungry on my watch." Hinako gestured proudly to her chest.

Hotaru cautiously accepted the offer, wanting to learn more about the rather odd demon that was masquerading as a school teacher.

…

Ranma was still thinking about yesterday when lunch rolled around. The new girl's presence had derailed his train of thought, but she was pretty forgettable. Well, now that he knew she wasn't there because of him, she was forgettable.

Glancing into his lunch Ranma blanched and slowly closed it. Clearly someone had been helping Kasumi this morning judging by the smell and texture of the food. Now the only question was how to get some lunch without letting a certain someone realize he was going to throw away the lunch she'd helped prepare.

Akane was glancing back at him so it wasn't like he could just pretend he had eaten it. Hmm this posed a problem, what he really needed right now was a distraction.

"Look! It's Sailor Venus." And there it was. Taking advantage of the sudden commotion at the window, Ranma discreetly tossed the bento into a nearby trash. As he did so, he quietly nabbed a bit of Daisuke's food. The guy owed it to him for that stunt last time Ranma was trapped as a girl.

"I bet she's here for Ranma." Ranma perked up as his name was mentioned.

"No way. I heard he only knew Sailor V." A few of Ranma's classmates were talking loudly by the window and pointing outside.

Another person chimed in. "They're the same person. Only Ranma would think something idiotic like that. Wait, don't tell him I said that."

Ranma just rolled his eyes. It seemed that one of the imposters was outside of his school. Rising to his feet, he noticed the new girl looking over at him. "Don't worry about it. Stranger things happen here daily than some fake scout coming by." Time to move away from the desk, as he had clearly finished his lunch. Ranma was almost grateful to the fake for showing up.

"Ranma, you jerk. Get down here this instant." A loud voice came from the courtyard and echoed in the room, sounding vaguely familiar. "You said you could never lose, well what about London?" Ranma paused for a second, as the voice and the words connected.

Ranma leapt to the window. "That wasn't a loss, I won! What fight were you looking at tomboy?" There was no mistaking it, that voice, that way of insinuating that Ranma might actually lose. If this wasn't fate then… Was that Sailor Kodachi?

…

Minako glanced around the school courtyard for any sign of her one time friend. Despite the stares she was getting, she belted out her voice as loudly as she could, trying to get him to come out. While it was extremely unlikely Ranma was alive, Minako couldn't not try to see if it was true. It was stupid to get her hopes up.

"You said you could never lose, well what about London?" Her voice cracked unintentionally at the last part. She waited for a sign, anything that he was alive. From the stares she was getting, the whole school had to be aware of her by now.

Still standing proudly Minako waited until a loud voice came from the second floor. Looking up she saw a youth with black hair. The pigtail was new, but the face made the identity obvious. "Ranma you're alive!"

Ranma hopped lithely out of the window and in only a few bounds was looking at her closely. "Ranma, why didn't you tell me? I thought you were dead." She nearly grabbed him but despite the evidence she didn't want to find it was all an illusion. She held herself back, wanting to know for sure if it was Ranma. The entire thing seemed like a dream come true.

Ranma cocked his head and looked closely at her, as tough inspecting for minute flaws. Was there something wrong with her? Why wasn't he saying anything? "Nope you've almost got it right. But V-chan was much less cute, and wasn't this wishy washy. If you're going to copy someone you should do it better." He shrugged. "Anyways since you know about London, I'm guessing V-chan told you. So where is she? I haven't seen her in ages."

Minako's jaw dropped slightly. Not only was he unconcerned about everything, he didn't even recognize her. "You jerk. I've spent 5 years thinking you were dead and that it was my fault. I thought Denburites' youma gutted you, and then your father said you were dead!"

Ranma paused. "That does kind of sound like my pops, but you don't look anything like that tomboy. Well other then the hair, but hers was shorter, and more golden. Try some better dye next time." Turning around, he began walking nonchalantly away. "Come back with V-chan, or when you have a better costume."

"Die Ranma!" Instead of using a newer technique, Minako called on the first one that came to mind. Maybe it was similar situation, but regardless. "V Crescent Shower!" Large beams of light hammered into the ground where the pigtailed brat had been standing. Had, being the key word. Unlike all those years before, Ranma dodged most of the beams only to find an angry face waiting for him with a punch where he had dodged to. "Sailor V Punch!"

The punch actually hit Ranma, and he grimaced as he leapt back. Before Minako could continue her righteous furry Ranma spoke up. "V-chan? Wow V-chan sorry about that I didn't recognize you. You look way different then you used to."

Minako paused. "Now you remember?" Her fury from before quickly deflated. It made sense in a rather odd way that Ranma would only remember her by fighting.

"Well yeah, I mean I can't see you teaching anyone else those techniques, and they are pretty unique. Oh, and sorry about calling you Sailor Kodachi, it's just with that whip and stuff… well, certain things come to mind." Minako wasn't sure what he was babbling about, but regardless, it seemed like he recognized her.

"Jerk. Why didn't you look for me earlier?" Minako's eyes started to tear up.

Ranma waved his hands quickly. "It's not that I didn't, it's that I couldn't. I couldn't even move for a month, and by that time I was ok, you had retired, and I was in India." From most people this would have seemed like a horrible excuse, but then again this was Ranma.

"I was only two wards over."

"Well how was I supposed to know you switched names. And costumes. It's not like it was obvious or anything." Minako had only one response to this; she hurled herself towards Ranma and grabbed him.

"Jerk."

Ranma looked uncomfortable, but Minako ignored this as she clung to him, having finally found him after 5 years.

…

Happsoai watched as the two cute lovers talked. Quickly filling in the blanks, he came to a rough understanding of what had gone on between the two previously. He had already snatched two pairs of pretties from the other two scouts. But how to net a fourth for his collection? Hearing the approaching magical girls whose pretties he had saved, he decided it was time for his apprentice to help out.

Grinning maniacally, Happosai bounded towards his student and the next scout whose pretties Happosai would 'save'.

…

Ranma wasn't sure what to think. On one hand, his best friend V-chan was here. On the other hand, V-chan was a kind of attractive girl. This could only mean that things were going to go horribly wrong.

"I mean how could I lose, sure I might not have been able to finish off those first few Youma we fought." But Ranma decided to let what ever was going to happen happen. One of his oldest friends was currently crying against his chest.

'There were 14." Minako sniffed.

"Ok. The first dozen or so fights, but of course I won the rematch at the Mansion." Ranma conceded the point graciously, mainly because he was willing to admit that his younger self had been pretty bad at fighting. It was almost embarrassing to think about how bad he had been even two or three years ago, let alone five years.

Feeling a sudden cold splash of water, Ranma looked over and saw his least favorite person in the world. "Ranma what? Who are you?" Minako let go of him and backed up. Ranma glanced down. Yeah, those two additions kind of made it obvious that she wasn't male any more.

"Ahh Ranko my dear, sorry about ruining your glorious vengeance." The aged martial arts master Happosai grinned viciously at Ranma's discomfort while holding an empty bucket of water. Ranma had been planning on telling V-chan, eventually. But a minute wasn't enough time to recap five years. And really he had been too busy trying to convince her he was alive.

Ranma sputtered "What vengeance?" This didn't sound good.

Happosai just shook his head sadly. "Oh have it your way. Justice against the foul murderer of your brother." Ranma paused for only one fatal second as the pure absurdity of the statement made itself known to him.

Minako on the other hand gasped and asked in a quavering voice "You mean?" Ranma might not have been the best people person, but he was pretty sure that was a horrified look on V-chan's face.

"Exactly. This is Ranko Saotome, Ranma's twin sister!" Happosai yelled out, drawing gasps from the onlookers.

"I always thought Saotome liked the girl's uniform too much."

"Remember that one match he had with that cute girl over who could sell the most food?"

Ranma couldn't stand it anymore. "No! I'm Ranma! And I'm a guy." A few sharp glares silenced the audience.

Happosai sniffed and muttered loudly enough for V-chan and the rest of the eager listeners to hear, "Oh I know you changed your name to honor your horribly murdered brother, but you'll always be Ranko to me." Ranma tried to throttle the wrinkled gnome, but Happosai just dodged the strike.

"You, You, You…" Minako looked to be searching for a vile enough word to describe what she thought Ranko was, but failed miserably. "I thought Ranma was alive."

"You've got it all wrong!" Ranma tried to protest, turning her attention away from the larger threat. Happosai quickly capitalized on Ranma's inattention to latch onto her head preventing her from making any more denials.

"I know I was supposed to let you play with her a little longer, but I must avenge my fallen student." Ranma tried to grab the lech, but Happosai was a little too fast, and Ranma didn't have any distractions at the moment. "You take care of those two, like a nice apprentice." Ranma glanced behind him in time to see a large blue orb of energy hurtling towards him. His life officially sucked right now.

…

Both Haruka and Michiru were in no mood to talk at the moment. The demon (there was no way he was possibly human) had ducked into a schoolyard. The duo were fast on its miserable little tail.

Having been lead on a chase through several alleys, more changing rooms than either had ever visited in a month, and what seemed to be every bathing house in the entire ward; both were looking the worse for wear. They saw the horrible thing find its apprentice, who looked to be tormenting Sailor Venus, judging by her tear stained face.

As such, Michiru didn't hesitate to unleash a Deep Submerge aimed at both master and apprentice.

The blast slammed into the apprentice, sending him flying away from Venus and towards the school. Strangely enough the students didn't flee, they just backed far enough away so as to not be caught in the cross fire.

"Michiru?" Haruka looked over at the apprentice.

"Fine, I'll take the girl. Just make sure you settle things with that demon." Michiru took off after the red haired apprentice of the monster.

…

Ranma really wasn't having a good day. Her body impacted into the side of the hill hard, creating a large impression. Dragging herself to her feet, Ranma was kind of glad V-chan didn't have that sort of fire power five years ago. In front of him was Sailor Water Sr., and it looked like she had a bone to pick. Actually, judging by the way her uniform was moving, she had been recently fighting the old lech.

"Look, I don't really want fight." Ranma tried to get rid of the fake sailor scout quickly. "So lets just save some time and you leave me alone. I mean you're going to lose."

But it seemed that Sailor Water Sr. wasn't interested in listening to reason. "In the name of Justice I can't allow you to continue. By choosing to follow your evil master you have no one to blame but yourself. Deep Submerge." Another large orb of water shot out forcing Ranma to fight. Out of the corner of his eye he could see V-chan and Sailor Tomboy yellow skirt fighting Happosai. It wouldn't be long before Happosai reached V-chan and pulled one of his patented moves. Which bothered Ranma more than he was willing to admit.

"Fine, you want a fight, you've got one." He just had to beat Sailor Water Sr. fast enough to reach V-chan, and convince her of the truth.

…

Back in the classroom, Hotaru watched as two of her adopted parents started fighting Saotome-san and the horrible gnome from earlier. Her new classmates didn't seem the least surprised.

"Has anyone seen Nabiki? I want to place some money on the Senshi." One of the students spoke up after fishing around in his wallet.

An older looking girl answered holding open a small book. "I'm taking bets for her."

"Why are you betting on the sailor scouts? I put my money one Ranma, no way he can lose." Another student asked quizzically.

"But these are the sailor scouts. They've killed demons, and Ranma's only human." The girl with her wallet pointed out.

A few classmates broke off arguing the various stats of the fighters involved while most just continued to eat their lunch and watch. Tendo-san, unlike the others, looked unsettled. "I'm the only one he calls tomboy…"

Hotaru tugged on Tendo-san's sleeve. "Excuse me, but why is no one trying to leave, or do something?"

Tendo-san turned and nodded absently, "This happens fairly often actually." Her expression soured. "I hope that jerk doesn't tear down the school this time." Watching the fight, Tendo-san seemed to grow more and more agitated before finally grabbing a desk and hurling it out the window. The desk impacted near Michiru and her pigtailed opponent. "Jerk!" Tendo-san yelled, and then stormed from the room followed by two other girls.

Another classmate immediately laid down money on half the school being demolished, before high tailing it out of the room.

"Ohhh delinquents have come from other schools to beat Saotome-san." Hinako had once again reappeared beside Hotaru. The young child teacher was peering out the window worriedly "Maybe I should get a teacher or something."

Half the class became quiet and stared at the pint sized kid. Hinako blinked and blushed "Oh right. I'm a teacher. I guess I should probably do something right?"

…

Sailor Moon and the rest of the senshi were making their way as fast as they could to the school. "Why did you agree to sign all those books?" Sailor Mars was currently more than a little irritated at the moment, and her voice showed it.

"You agreed too." Usagi sniffled slightly. Her poor wrist would never be the same.

"Only because… she asked." Rei had to admit there was really no reason to have done it, but at the time she had been unable to refuse Kasumi the small favor. Still, it was clearly Usagi's fault. "I have essay tests coming up, I need to be able to write." And at this moment her wrist felt akin to jelly.

Makoto who was in the lead glanced back and spoke up, "Quiet you two. We're here." Reaching the school, it looked like the entire autograph thing had been a diversion. An old man was fighting off both Haruka and Minako. While a little ways over, Michiru was fighting a red haired girl. Though, it looked like the red haired girl was going to be victorious shortly.

"Makoto, you and Rei help Michiru. Me and Ami will go help Minako and Haruka." For once Usagi was acting like a leader. It was a change that only really seemed to come up during important times. Regardless the other scouts followed their instructions. Even Rei for her grumbling, followed the orders without a word.

…

Ranma was getting a bit tired from Sailor Water Sr. Sure she wasn't good at fighting, but she kept moving, preventing Ranma from getting closer to V-chan, or ending the fight for good. Every time Ranma approached she found large blasts of energy waiting for her, and even if she did manage to hit the Sailor Scout, well those suits were damn powerful. Maybe not at Ryouga's level, but still pretty strong. And Ranma didn't want to kill her opponent, just get by the Fake Sailor Scout. But so far, none of the increasingly more powerful strikes had done much.

"Fire Soul." Ranma wheeled out of the way as a large gout of fire passed by her.

"Supreme Thunder." A loud crackling noise filled the air and Ranma took to the air to avoid a bolt of lighting the was doubly effective due to the amount of water on the ground from Sailor Water Sr.'s attacks.

"I don't suppose you want to talk?" Ranma asked, not really wanting to fight three imposters at once. Actually maybe they weren't imposters so much as teammates now that he thought about it. V-chan was probably the leader of the group, and might not appreciate Ranma permanently hurting her friends. Not that Ranma would have done such a thing anyways.

"She was trying to kill Venus." Michiru glared at Ranma. Judging by the way the other two reacted, fighting was now inevitable. He considered telling the truth. But really there was just no point, Ranma knew from previous experience that when you're accused of something the best way to deal with it is to fight your accusers into the ground and explain everything afterwards.

"My name's Ranma Saotome, and I never lose, especially not to losers like you three." Ranma grinned as she settled into a relaxed stance. Now if only she could figure out a way to reach V-chan and put this entire misunderstanding behind them.

None of the three seemed to appreciate this honest fact. In fact judging by the way the Sailor Fire started shooting more powerful versions of that initial fire ball this was going to be interesting.

Leaping out of the way Ranma called out. "Ok, I know you're still new at this fighting thing, but you're supposed to hit your opponent. I know it seems like a strange concept, but maybe you'll get it one of these years." Sailor Fire didn't seem to appreciate his well meant advice.

Sailor Water Sr. had moved around to put Ranma into a mildly unfavorable position, between three Sailor Scouts with them as a triangle, and him the target. It did kind of limit his movements. Sure he could have broken their formation, but this was also the best chance for him ending the fight quickly.

Sailor Thunder yelled out, "Mars don't listen to her, she's just trying to rile you up."

"Not really, I mean here I was giving some advice to the new fighter. But if you want some advice too I guess I should be fair." Sailor Thunder came in using some decent fighting techniques but nothing that special. Ranma dodged the first strike by bending backwards and then side stepping to the left. "Nice punch, but I guess we can't all be good at everything." Seeing the girl's confusion, Ranma continued. "I mean I'm way better built then you, no problem getting a guy, you on the other hand… well the cave girl approach is always a good one. But you might want to get a little better at fighting first." Ranma smirked as he watched the girl's expression become enraged.

Yep, there were certainly some advantages of having a really well built girl's body. Not many but a few. Sailor Water Sr. tried to calm her enraged friends; But Ranma just laughed and continued taunting them "Oh, so close there. You almost managed not to miss there with that last one." Slowly moving the angry Sailor Thunder around in a circular direction, Ranma smirked as she began focusing on the soul of ice, cooling her fighting spirit.

Finally Ranma threw a corkscrew punch into the air. "Hah and you say I'm bad." Sailor Fire yelled out. Ranma just smirked in response.

"Rising Dragon's Blast" was the last thing Ranma said before gale force winds appeared whipping around the scouts forcing them up in the air. Now Ranma waited, not wanting to get caught by his own technique, and also not wanting any of the girls to get too badly hurt. The armor was good, but not perfect, from what Ranma remembered. Sailor Water Sr. was shot out of the cyclone first and judging from the impact and the way her eyes were closed, she wasn't getting back up anytime soon. Then the other two were shot out, but both landed pretty well, for amateurs at least.

"Neptune!" Sailor Thunder dashed over to her fallen comrade, while Sailor Fire continued the fight with Ranma.

"Damn you, bastard, if you killed her…" Sailor Fire unleashing arrows upon arrows of fire, forcing Ranma to weave and dodge. But against this much fire it was becoming obvious that in order to win, and survive, she'd have to take both fighters out. Planting her feet she launched herself towards the source of the flames.

Sailor Fire took a few last shots of magical fire before stopping and switching to hand to hand.

Sailor Fire was pretty bad at least not bad compared to most of the other nuts that Ranma faced on a regular basis. But her monster like strength more than made up for her lack in skill. As such Ranma stopped holding back as much and began ramping up his attacks.

Ranma might have been able to launch hundreds of punches a second but judging by the lack of response, his punches weren't doing much. Ranma had held back against Sailor Water Sr because she hadn't wanted to badly hurt the false sailor scouts, but now Ranma was starting to realize that just maybe, those suit things were just a tad bit stronger then V-chan's. Which meant, Ranma really should have been focusing a bit more on attacking earlier.

Sailor Fire grimaced after a particularly numerous series of punches, but her counter strike more then returned the favor. Ranma half blocked it, only to find himself forced back from the blow. Yeah, this was a lot like fighting Ryouga.

Feeling something was off, Ranma dodged to the left just in time to avoid Sailor Thunder's return to the fight. This just wasn't fair. Two Ryouga's just wasn't something Ranma had time for right now.

"100 yen Happo drain." The two Sailor Scouts flinched as energy was ripped away from them. "Delinquents need to know their place. I don't tolerate this behavior from Saotome and I certainly won't tolerate it from you two." Hinako-sensei stood in adult form across from the senshi.

Ranma was surprised to see his home room teacher joining in on his side. Normally she aimed for Ranma first. But judging by the way Hinako-sensei wasn't paying attention to her student; the teacher was probably there just for the fakes.

Sailor Fire didn't look impressed and was the first to recover from being drained, Ranma idly wondered if the suit was helping or if it was just a magical girl thing to recover so fast. "She's some sort of demon, like the youma. I'll deal with her, you take care of the red head." Sailor Fire began charging up another blast and launched it only to have it countered by Hinako's return shot.

"You're delinquents, I won't let you ruin my record." Hinako-sensei smirked at the two scouts.

"Didn't I already break your record? Just get out of here, they're too much for you." Ranma didn't like Hinako-sensei, but she was still his favorite teacher. If only because she had shut down Happosai a few times. Regardless, against these magical tanks she wouldn't last long, and he was pretty sure those magical girls weren't in the mood to hold back right now.

But before Ranma could enter the battle, Sailor Thunder intercepted her and nearly got her with a kick. Unlike Sailor Fire, Sailor Thunder was halfway decent in the art. Not that good, but not hopeless either. And with that battle doji like armor, she was a decent opponent.

…

Hotaru watched as Rei nearly burned the teacher alive, not knowing how weak Hinako actually was. As much as she didn't wish to fight her friends… "Silence Wall." A large wall of energy separated Mars from her current prey. The latest fire bolt splattered harmlessly on it.

"Hota..Saturn why?"

…

Ranma was pretty sure who the new student was now. Her chi was similar to the new Sailor Scout's that had just appeared. Maybe that stint in the various monasteries had served a purpose. Sensing chi was a fairly recent skill, but learning how to meditate had helped develop it. Sure it was a pretty useless skill in most cases, but in cases like this it made it easy to know who was who.

Since Hotaru was Hinako's friend it meant she'd likely defend the child teacher. Which meant that Ranma could finally sneak away.

Only thing left was to convince Sailor Thunder to leave him alone for a second. "Excellent. Our brainwashing technique has been successful, go forth and destroy Sailor Preteen… I mean Sailor Saturn." Ranma laughed maniacally.

Sailor Preteen tried to explain but Ranma took advantage of Sailor Thunder's distraction at the proclamation to hurl her towards the youngest Senshi. The young senshi only saw something hurtling towards her and erected a similar wall as before. Ranma didn't pause to wait. If they were friends, they'd sort this misunderstanding out in a minute. Probably less. But Ranma had her own misunderstanding to sort out.

…

Sailor Venus was currently experiencing the worst day of her life bar none. Not only had she thought for a moment Ranma was alive, but also that he might have liked her. And then maybe something could have happened, like dating! But it was a dirty trap, really she should have known better. But love springs eternal. Or something.

Despite the fact that the legendary Happosai was surrounded by four sailor scouts, he was still bouncing around. The gentle Ami seemed to be the second angriest of the lot having been divested of her bra, which she claimed wasn't really hers when the scouts saw how frilly it was.

Clearly Ami had plans for later that day. And judging from the large ice spikes that littered the ground, Ami had clearly found a new technique through her anger.

But whenever Usagi tried to cleanse the demonic thing, it simply cackled and lured in one of the other scouts. Purifying energy didn't really affect them, but it still hurt emotionally to be used as a shield.

Then the horrible gnome started using fire crackers that both obscured the field, while others hurt like hell. Size was no apparent indicator of how much power the bombs contained. According to Ami they were being created out of pure energy, so it made a weird kind of sense.

"Ohh Ranko my girl, you've decided to join in." The horrible thing glanced over Minako's shoulder. Minako turned in time to see Ranko leap over her head.

Minako spun back around to see the gnome and his apprentice fighting it out like cats and rain. Or was that dogs and rain? "Join in? Like hell. This is entirely your fault." Clearly Ranko was more then a little annoyed about her master barging in on her fight. The other Sailor scouts quickly fanned out around the clashing pair.

"Now, now, Ranko you mustn't go blaming people over little things like this. You'll end up like that other boy, Ryouga I think his name is." Happosai ducked under Ranko's latest kick. "Well I must admit, I had hoped that you would be kept busy a while longer." Happosai slipped around the young girl's body noticeably stopping on several areas.

"Yeah, well these knockoffs aren't very good; sure the Thunder one was decent but no where near good enough to win." Finally Ranko opened her shirt.

"Surely you don't think that when I'm around such visions of loveliness that's going to work." Happosai claimed as he burrowed his face into Ranko's chest.

"Actually I kind of thought it would." Slamming the pervert down to the ground Ranko followed up with a massive kick that sent the demon flying.

It took Ranko all of five seconds to accomplish, what the others couldn't complete in five minutes. Of course, Happosai was Ranko's teacher.

"We just wanted to talk, and you broke our friend's heart. In the name of the moon, you shall be punished." Usagi jumped in. Over the course of the fight Minako had been able to share what had started everything.

"What? You've got it all wrong. I'm Ranma Saotome." Seeing the scouts disbelieving looks Ranko continued "Really."

It was at this point a large fire ball hurtled towards Ranko. Mars yelled from behind Ranko "Get back here, you're not getting away that easily." Ranko leaned away and Minako watched as the ball of fire hurtled toward Sailor Moon who scrambled to get out of the way as well.

Ranko looked around and seemed to realize that with all the Inner scouts and Haruka, the match was clearly in their favor. "Uhhh I'll see ya later V-chan." Ranko took one look over Minako's shoulder before fleeing.

…

After leaving the school Ranma had managed to 'borrow' someone's tea to turn back into a male. Being a girl was alright, but Ranma still preferred being a guy. Nothing beat one's natural form, as he was sure the other Jusenkyo victims in Nerima would attest to. Shrugging Ranma thought back to why he had left school so quickly.

It wasn't so much that Ranma couldn't fight all of them, it was that he really didn't want to. Two Ryougas, maybe, but eight? Not so likely… easy a win. Not that he could lose of course.

Besides talking around that many people would be more then a little awkward. Even at the best of times Ranma wasn't the sort to talk that much about himself. Brag, sure. But actually talk about himself? Not so much.

And then there was the fact that they were girls. Girls never listened to his side, they just hit or drugged first and then listened… maybe. And since Ranma now knew what V-chan felt like, it wouldn't be that hard to track her down over in Juuban. While Ranma's mom didn't live in the ward, she did live close to it. It was clearly a good time to visit.

But first he needed some advice, which meant the first place he had to stop was Uuchan's. He was also starving having been forced to borrow Daisuke's rather tiny lunch. It said something about him that he forgot that school was only half over until he had only a block from Uuchan's. Well it wasn't like he was going to miss anything too important. And he still had a few days he could skip before he had to repeat the year.

Somersaulting in the air he landed gracefully in front of the Okonomiyaki diner. Since Uuchan hadn't been at school today she was most likely at home working. It was kind of impressive that she worked through high school. Though if Ranma ever saw Uuchan's father, well he'd have some things to do and say.

Ranma was about to open the door when he saw the sign. 'On Vacation. Be Back in two weeks. Sorry for the inconvenience.' "Aww man. What am I supposed to do now?" There were only a few people Ranma could go to for advice about these sorts of things, and his best friend was one of them. Then again, maybe this was a good thing. Having stopped to think about it, Ranma realized that talking about V-chan with Ukyo might not have been a good idea.

He briefly thought about who else he could ask. The old Ghoul? Nah, Ranma liked asking her about most things, but anything related to girls was taboo around the wizened matriarch, considering she was gunning for a marriage between him and Shampoo. Dr. Tofu was next on the list, but considering his own streak of failure, Ranma decided to skip him. Ryouga was another option, but the odds of the lost boy showing up right now were pretty slim. Ranma glanced around. Yeah they were really slim.

…

Ryouga at this moment was wandering through what he was pretty sure was Hokaido, as Hokaido had penguins. His current goal was to track down a certain someone.

For once this someone wasn't Ranma, but the beautiful Akari. "I'll get there soon, just as soon as I find someone for directions" He was only a few days late for their date, and he was pretty sure the date would keep for a few days… right?

…

Artemis glanced into Minako's room nervously. Seeing the other scouts and hoping that Mina wouldn't kill him out of hand with witnesses, he slipped in through the open door. "So how did going down to Nerima work out?" Judging by the tired looks and general ill atmosphere, Artemis had a clue. "Well it can't be that bad."

"Ranma's crazy sister Ranko is convinced she's Ranma, and seems pretty evil herself. Happosai swore vengeance for killing Ranma, oh and there's some sort of energy draining teacher over in Nerima." Rei summed up the general events. With all the scouts present except for Setsuna, the room was a bit crowded, but none disagreed with Rei's statement.

Then Usagi spoke up again. "Well maybe Ranko isn't that bad?"

Makoto snorted. "Doubtful. Look what she did to Michiru."

Michiru smiled wanly, more than a little tried and sore. "I'll be fine in a few days."

Haruka shook her head. "They're both menaces. But you five still haven't explained who this Ranma is."

The five inner senshi looked guiltily away. Minako finally spoke. "He was my friend back in London. He practiced Anything Goes, and since he died during our last mission, Genma, Ranma's father, blames me. That girl was his sister, but I'm not so sure she's evil."

Usagi nodded eagerly. 'She didn't want to fight, so we should give her a chance."

"She only wanted to talk because she couldn't beat all of us at once." Rei really didn't appreciate Ranko's lessons.

Hotaru voiced her own opinion. "I'm not so sure about that. He, she seemed fine in class and was actually nice. But in class everyone said she was male, and she looked male…"

"Yeah, her disguise was pretty good. Still she must have been really close to Ranma to be so heavily affected." Minako spoke quickly trying to convince herself. Ranko had acted almost exactly like Ranma had, even ignoring the senshi of love when Minako dropped by. Was it meant as a mind game? Or was Ranma somehow still alive? It wouldn't be the first time Minako had heard of a brother and sister sharing a body. But the odds of Ranma living and then some how being able to turn into a girl? Those breasts were pretty damning evidence. Minako briefly toyed with the idea of Ranma being like the Starlights, but finally discarded it as wishful thinking.

"I think she might actually think she's Ranma. Genma was pretty obvious in how he viewed girls. I think he helped convince Ranko to be Ranma's replacement." Even saying it, Minako could see it happening. A young girl having lost her brother, a deranged father who believed only sons mattered. With Genma's views on woman, wouldn't he try to create a second Ranma at the cost of a 'worthless' daughter? No point letting her hopes get up a second time.

Haruka and Mirchiru looked disgusted at what Genma had likely done. "Unforgivable." Was all that Haruka had to say on the subject.

The others looked over at Usagi who looked torn. "Then we have to heal them. In order to do so, we may need to… stop them." The healing magic of the silver crystal only worked on mental wounds, and while it should work on physical wounds Usagi had yet to find a setting between nothing, and resurrection. And since they were using their rather destructive powers on misguided people…. It wasn't a pleasant thought.

Minako found it kind of ironic that one of losers from her first victories would become a final boss all these years later. And one that couldn't be killed, but had to be saved from itself, was even more ironic.

Hotaru's presence, until she had spoken up, had gone mostly unnoticed, but now having drawn the attention of her two guardians, Hotaru shank slightly.

Haruka looked over at her young daughter. "Which reminds me, I know the rest of the Inners won't let their parents find out about skipping, but we need to have a talk with you young lady."

Hotaru brought up the best argument she had. "You skipped school back during the death busters, and when ever there was an attack."

"Well, the world was in danger." Haruka shot back quickly not wanting to let the conversation be diverted.

"My family was in danger. I couldn't sit back and watch." Hotaru burst out.

"Oh," Haruka looked a bit pleased at this statement, before saying gruffly "Well next time just listen to us. It wasn't a nice surprise seeing you out there so suddenly."

Michiru nodded in agreement before finally asking "Which brings up the next point. Who was that energy sucking youma?"

"That's Hinako-sensei, she's a teacher there. Some of the students don't like her too much, but others said she keeps away some of the worst troublemakers."

Rei was quick to point out the worst possibility, "She might have brain washed them, or.."

Usagi shook her head "She sounds nice and if Hotaru thinks she's a good person, we should give her a chance. She might actually be nice."

Hotaru nodded eagerly "I'm going to find out. I asked if I could come back tomorrow before we left, and Hinako-sensei said it was fine." To be precise Hinako-sensei had been overjoyed that she'd have proof that she hadn't abducted a child as an excuse for tardiness.

Haruka was the first to raise an objection to her adopted daughter going undercover "But!"

Hotaru quickly interrupted not wanting to let her guardian build up any steam. Otherwise the senshi of silence would never be allowed to go. "I'll be fine, it's not as though I'm going to be in much danger."

"Happosai is still in the area." Michiru pointed out in a worried tone of voice.

"But he won't know it's me." Hotaru quickly pointed out.

It took some time but finally Hotaru wore her over protective guardian down and got permission to attend Furiken High for another day.

Makoto spoke up "So what's the plan now? Are we just going to leave things the way they are, or are we going to head back tomorrow?"

Usagi shook her head. "We wait until Sunday. It's only three days. We'll meet up and go as a group to the Tendo Dojo, and we'll find out the truth behind Ranko, and tell them what really happened." Seeing the other scouts' looks, Usagi elaborated. "If we skip tomorrow, well my mom will kill me." Minako nodded her head in agreement. Skipping one day was a risk but two was a bit much.

Ami looked to be the most relieved at the new plan. The rest of the scouts nodded eagerly. This seemed like a good plan to them. No more going in alone to face the Demon of Nerima.

…

Happosai slowly forced himself out of the crater that his cruel and unappreciative apprentice had kicked him into. Dusting himself off, he turned and grinned. "Ohh Setsu-chan, surely you aren't worried that I won't have time for your pretties." Happosai grinned lecherously at the green haired woman in front of him. Having grown used to the constant ambushes during the fight over the Nanban mirror, Happosai was quite skilled at detecting Setsuna's powers.

Sailor Pluto grimaced at the diminutive form of her name. It was a hated thing that only served to remind her of her past history with the gnome in front of her. "Whatever you are here for, I'll stop you. I won't let this become another playground for you and your ilk." Anything Goes practitioners tended to draw chaos and destruction like moths to a flame.

As to why Setsuna had left the other scouts behind for this mission was simple. Happosai was going to die, and nothing anyone could say could convince her otherwise. Which was why Setsuna was extremely grateful Usagi hadn't ordered the group to capture the leche alive. An order would mean that Setsuna would follow it explicitly; a request to stop Happosai, could be misinterpreted.

Happosai just grinned suggestively "But I just got back from a small flight over to China. And I haven't seen you in so long."

Pluto dropped into a ready stance. "Not nearly long enough. You must tell me how you survived that last fire, I could have sworn you died."

"Kekeke, perhaps." The ancient man simply shrugged, then again Setsuna hadn't really been expecting an answer. "I was surprised you didn't help out your little friends earlier. If you were there, well I might have actually been in danger."

Setsuna ignored his own half asked question and instead whispered "Dead Scream." A large orb of pink light hurtled towards the aged martial artist.

Happosai flicked his hand out with his worn pipe, deflecting the incoming blast into a nearby wall.

…

Nodoka was a very traditional woman in many ways. She lived her life in such a way as to be a testament to her honored ancestors. Just as she one day hoped Ranma's many, many children would be.

She was rather surprised, to say the least, that her son had come to visit. Pleased, but surprised. It was her understanding that he and Akane were living together so as to become closer and have babies. At least, that was what her husband claimed. But one could never be too sure about him and honesty.

"Yeah, anyways, I found out V-chan thought I was dead, and now she and the fakes are trying to beat me or something." Her son rambled on as he had been for the past hour or so.

Nodding her head Nodoka considered what advice she should give her wonderful son. It was a rare occasion, which her son came to her. She didn't blame his father, as that would not be proper, but she did wish that Ranma had visited more often while growing up. "How many of these scouts," the title sounded foreign in Nodoka's mouth "Are girls?"

"Well, I think they all are. There's about eight or nine of them. They fight demons and stuff. Most of them are pretty bad fighters, but some of them are half decent. Not as good as me of course."

"Then you must clear up this misunderstanding immediately. It is very important to have good relationships with those who fight against darkness as you do." It was a martial artist's manly duty to fight demons. "And if you become close, surely Akane wouldn't mind if you had a few mistresses." And more children.

Ranma's eyes darted around the room. Surely he wasn't thinking of leaving so soon. "Uhh, yeah. I'll uhh, keep that in mind." Such a good son, minding his mother's words.

"And school?" Nodoka had to ask because as it was her understanding that in current society, it was not considered manly for someone to not complete high school. It wasn't unmanly to not complete high school either, but the neighbors might get the wrong impression about Ranma's Dojo when the time came.

"I still have 5, no wait I used one up on the last time Herb visited, so four days left this semester I can skip." Nodoka looked worried about this.

"It wouldn't be manly if you lost to all the other students in your year." Nodoka's thumb brushed her ever present cloth wrapped bundle containing the honor sword of the family.

"Uhh, yeah. No chance I'll fail."

…

It was later the next day when Ranma look his leave of his mom's house. Breathing a sigh of relief, he took to the streets to look around the nearest high schools. There couldn't be that many of them in the whole ward, and the Scouts were most active in Juuban.

Ranma loved his mother dearly but some days he wondered if that ten year training trip his pops took him on had been an excuse to stay away from the house. Shrugging his shoulders he continued on his way.

…


End file.
